JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Criminal Appeal filed under Section 374(2) Cr.P.C, against the judgment passed in Spl.C.C.No.3 of 2014, dated 21.06.2017, on the file of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Pudukkottai, Pudukkottai District.)

1. It would be opt to begin the judgment with the observations of the Hon''ble Supreme Court in Niranjan Hemchandra Sashitial and another Vs. State of Maharashtra reported in (2013)4 SCC 642:

“It can be stated without any fear of contradiction that corruption is not to be judged by degree, for corruption mothers disorder, destroys societal will to progress, accelerates undeserved ambitions, kills the conscience, jettisons the glory of the institutions, paralyses the economic health of a country, corrodes the sense of civility and mars the marrows of governance. It is worth noting that immoral acquisition of wealth destroys the energy of the people believing in honesty, and history records with agony how they have suffered.”

2. The Criminal Appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction and sentence passed in Spl.C.C.No.3 of 2014, dated 21.06.2017, on the file of the Special Court for trial of cases under Prevention of Corruption Act / Chief Judi