JUDGMENT :

A. BADHARUDEEN, J.

The appellant, who was convicted and sentenced by the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Thrissur, in C.C.No. 16/1998 by judgment dated 29.07.2006, has preferred this appeal, challenging the said conviction and sentence on multiple grounds. The State of Kerala is the respondent herein.

2. Heard the learned counsel for the appellant/accused as well as the learned Special Public Prosecutor in detail. Perused the evidence available in the records of the Special Court and the decisions placed by the learned counsel for the appellant.

3. In a nutshell, the prosecution allegation is that, the accused demanded Rs.25,000/- (Rupees twenty five thousand only) as illegal gratification from PW1, Sri.Paul Varghese, as a motive or reward for not making any reduction in the value of improvements of the land acquired for Kochi International Airport and for disbursing the compensation. Accordingly, he demanded and accepted Rs.10,000/- on 05.09.1997 and again, Rs.15,000/- was demanded and accepted on 19.09.1997 and he was trapped along with Rs.15,000/- by the trap team. Accordingly, the prosecution alleges commission of offences punishable under Section 7 as well as