The demand and acceptance of bribe must be proven to establish corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act, necessitating sufficient evidence for trial.

JUDGMENT

Sudhir Kumar Jain, J. - The present petition is filed under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the "Code") on behalf of the petitioner for Setting aside the order dated 12.09.2019 (hereinafter referred to as "impugned order") passed by the court of Special judge CBI (PC Act)-02, Rouse avenue Courts, Delhi (hereinafter referred as "the trial court") passed in CBI V Ulhas Prabhakar Khaire and another bearing Court Case no 312/19 arising out of RC bearing no RC-ACl 2013 A000l registered under section 120-B IPC read with sections 7 & 13 (2) and section 13 (1) (d) of Prevention of corruption Act, 1988 (herein after referred to as "PC Act") whereby the trial court passed an order on charge and also framed charges against the petitioner.

2. The facts of the case are that a written complaint dated 27.11.2012 was made by Raj Kumar Saha, Inspector, EOW, Delhi Police and was forwarded by. K.K Vyas, Deputy Commissioner of Police, EOW Crime Branch, Delhi vide letter No. 2540/SO-DCP/EOW seeking necessary legal action regarding illegal gratification demanded by and paid to senior Income Tax Officers. FIR bearing no 152/2011 dated 29.06.2012 was registered at P.S Moti Nagar, New Delhi, and pursuant to the alleged disclosure statement of Ulhas Prabhakar (hereinafter referred to as "the accused") made in FIR baring no 152/2011, RC- AC1 2013 A0001 dated 09.01.2013 was registered by CBI, AC-1, New Delhi under section 120-B IPC and under sections 7, 12, 13(2) read with section 13(1) (d) of PC Act.

2.1 It is alleged that the accused namely Ulhas Prabhakar @ Lokeshawar Dev along with his wife Priyanka Dev were running a firm under name and style of M/s Stock Guru India having its registered office at 58/A-1, Lisa Tower, Rama Road, Moti Nagar, Delhi, They had guaranteed to provide a 20% return per month up to six months on the principal amount followed by a subsequent refund of the principal amount to the seventh month, by prudent and sourced based investments in the share market. However, instead of refunding their investments as promised, the accused and Priyanka Dev shut down their office and ran with the collected money.

2.2 The accused and his wife Priyanka Dev Jain were arrested on 10.11.2011.The accused during the course of custodial interrogation on 18.11.2012 disclosed that on 18/19.01.2011 raids were conducted at his office and residence and large cash amount was misappropriated by Income Tax (IT) officers and subsequently demands were raised and there was acceptance of illegal gratification by Yogender Mittal, ADIT, IT Department, Jhandewalan, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as "the petitioner"). The accused disclosed that at the time of search he had offered illegal gratification to the petitioner from recovered money to help him in the matter. However, the petitioner demanded illegal gratification from the source other than the already recovered money for showing favor by preparing a favorable appraisal report within 12 months, showing that the accused had an income of Rs. 105 crores and adjust the recovered money as Income Tax. The petitioner also promised the accused that all frozen accounts would be opened if he could arrange money for him. The accused further disclosed that he had provided information about his flat no. 9 Hill view Apartments, Bhiwadi, Rajasthan to petitioner where he had kept Rs. 42-44 crores. It was agreed that 50% of the said cash would be kept by the IT officials for a favorable decision. The accused also revealed that petitioner had spoken to other IT officials namely, Mr. Garg and Mr. S. K Singh who were also appraised about the offer of the a