Without corroboration there cannot be conviction.

All these three appeals arise out of a single Judgment delivered by the Special Judge and I Additional District Judge-cum-Chief Judicial Magistrate, Salem in Special Calender Case No. 152 of 1990 whereby the appellants in all these three appeals were convicted for the offence under Secs.120-B read with 13(2) read with 13(1)(a) and 13(1)(d) and Sec.7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, 13(2) read with 13(1)(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and 13(1)(d) read with 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year for each offence and to pay a fine of Rs.2,000 each in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months and A-3 was convicted for the offence under Secs.7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs.2,000 in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 months and the sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Accused No. 14 was acquitted and the charges against A-12 and A-24 abated.

A-2 to A-11, 13, 15 to 18, 20 to 23 and 28 to 31 have preferred Crl.Appeal No.386 of 1999 as against their conviction and sentence. Similarly A-1 and A-19 have preferred Criminal Appeal No.393 of 1999 and A-25, A-26 and A-27 have preferred Criminal Appeal No.444 of 1999. Since all the appeals arise out of a single Judgment, the following Common Judgment is pronounced. For the sake of convenience, the appellants are described here as accused by their respective Numbers as found in the judgment of the trial Court.

COMMON JUDGMENT:

All the accused were attached to the Mettur Unit of the Prohibition Enforcement Wing situate at Kunjandiyur having territorial jurisdiction over 7 Police Station limits. A-26 was the Additional Superintendent of Police and A-25 was the Deputy Superintendent of Police. A-28 was the Camp Clerk and A-29 was the Office Assistant attached to the Additional Superintendent of Police. A-1 was the Inspector of Police. A-2, A-4 and A-27 are Sub Inspectors of Police. Others belong to the constabulary. The approver P.W.4 was the Station Writer of the Wing.

2. The charges against them are that:

All the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy having agreed to collect “mamool” from various prohibition offenders by way of illegal gratification other than legal remuneration as a reward for abstaining from arresting them and booking cases against them and in pursuance of the conspiracy A-1 to A-27 by abusing their position as public servants obtained for themselves and on behalf of A-28 to A-31 pecuniary advantage in the form of “mamool” to be shared among them collected through A-3, A-10, A-1 1 and A-21 on behalf of all the accused and thus collected an amount of Rs.2,00,950 as illegal gratification and shared among themselves.

3. P.W.4 Krishnan, a Grade-I Constable was working as a writer in the Prohibition Wing, Mettur from 21.10.1988. The Prohibition Wing was collecting from various illicit distillers, a sum of Rupees ranging from 150 to 300 per week from each for permitting them to distil and sell arrack. The agreement was that each distiller should give one case per month. A-10, Constable Natarajan, A-11, Constable Swaminathan and A-21, Constable Chinna Muniyan were entrusted with the work of collecting “mamool”. As and when they go for collection of “mamool”, they would be provided with other duties. The distillers themselves also used to come to the Station and hand over the “mamool” amounts to the Para Constable who was expected to take down their address and the amount and every day the collected amount was disbursed among the Police Force. An arrangement came to an effect in the third or fourth week of December, 1988 whereby the first accused proposed that the collected “mamool” can be distributed and disbursed once in a week. Other Constables were also informed about the arrangement. Every week, e