JUDGMENT

R.K. Chowdhary, J. - This is an appeal by one Jugul Kishore who has been convicted by a learned Special Judge Anti Corruption, UP Lucknow, u/s 161, IPC, and sentenced to two year's RI and a fine of Rs. 1,000, or further RI for six months in default of payment of fine.

2. The Appellant was prosecuted and tried under the Prevention of Corruption Act (II of 1947), so that there were no commitment proceedings. The accused, being a competent witness u/s 7 of that Act, examined himself as such besides producing other witnesses in support of his defence. He was convicted as a public servant by virtue of his office as Station Master of the railway station of Garhmukteshwar on the Northern Railway in this State.

3. It appears that Garhmukteshwar is a railway station for certain important outlying market towns, one such town being Siyana. Any trader intending to transmit goods from Garhmukteshwar had to submit a forwarding note for reservation of a wagon and pay Rs. 35 as a fee for the same. This was the practice in vogue to serve as a check against unnecessary reservations. An entry in respect of the forwarding note and the payment of Rs. 35 was made in the Priority Register and a receipt for the fee paid was granted to the trader. The prosecution case is that the Appellant was in the habit of extorting a bribe of Rs. 25 per wagon by withholding the railway receipt until the payment was made. Dharam Chand PW 1, a partner in the firm Shri Ram Rajendra Kumar Anand doing commission agency business at Siyana, booked a wagon on 6-1-1952 for sending gur to Raniganj. Nand Lal PW 6, another partner of the firm, prepared the forwarding note and deposited Rs. 35 as registration fee. The wagon was loaded on 8-1-1952, but this time the Appellant demanded Rs. 30 instead of the usual Rs. 25 as bribe for issuing the railway receipt. Dharam Chand and Nand Lal therefore went away without being able to obtain the railway receipt, promising to come the following day S. S. Bakshi PW 5, Railway Sectional Officer of the Special Police Government of India, UP Branch at Meerut (hereinafter referred to as the R. S. O.), professes to have come to know from a secret source that the Appellant was a corrupt official, and in order to verify his information he went to Siyana on 8-1-1952 and met Dharam Chand there on the same date. Dharam Chand then told him what had happened in connection with the wagon which had been booked by him on 6-1-1952 and loaded on 8-1-1952. In particular, the RSO was informed that the Appellant had demanded Rs. 30 instead of the usual sum of Rs. 25 for the wagon. He was also told that payment of the bribe for the wagon in question was going to be made on the following day. Dharam Chand requested the RSO to help him and the latter promised to bring a Magistrate and asked Dharam Chand to meet him in the dakbungalow at Garhmukteshwar on 9-1-1952.

4. The same day, i. e. on 8-1-1952, the RSO went to Meerut and presented an application Ext P6 to the Additional District Magistrate there. The following was that application:

I have received information that the Station Master Garhmukteshwar, district Meerut, is habitually corrupt in the manner that he demands and accepts an illegal gratification for allotment and booking of wagon loads from Garhamukteshwar to various stations.

5. One Shri Dharamchand of firm Shri Ram Rajindra Kumar Anand Merchants and Commission Agents Siyana (Bulandshahr) had volunteered to cooperate in laying out a trap against the corrupt official.

6. It is therefore requested that a first class Magistrate may kindly be deputed to supervise the trap at Garhmukteshwar railway station. The trap has been arranged for tomorrow 9-1-1952 at about 10 a. m." The Additional District Magistrate endorsed on the application an order directing Shri M. C. Chaturvedi PW 3, a first class Magistrate at Meerut (hereinafter referred to as the Magistrate), to do the needful. The RSO showed this order to the Magistrate the same day and made an app