IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD R/CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1268 of 2004 With R/CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1270 of 2004 FOR APPROVAL AND SIGNATURE:

HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE S.V. PINTO: Sd/-

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Approved for Reporting Yes ==========================================================

BABUBHAI MAFABHAI PRAJAPATI BUCKLE NO. 7035 & ANR.

Versus STATE OF GUJARAT ==========================================================

Appearance:

MR BJ JOSHI(367) for the Appellant(s) No. 2 MR. AAMIR S PATHAN(7142) for the Appellant(s) No. 2 ROHANKUMAR M AMIN(8851) for the Appellant(s) No. 1 MR. ADITYA JADEJA, APP for the Opponent(s)/Respondent(s) No. 1 ==========================================================

CORAM:HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE S.V. PINTO Date : 04/02/2026 COMMON ORAL JUDGMENT

1. These appeals have been filed by the appellants – original accused under Section 374 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgement and order of conviction passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad (Rural), Ahmedabad (hereinafter referred to as “the learned Trial Court”) in Special ACB Case No. 21/1997 on 29.07.2004, whereby, the learned Trial Court was pleased to convict the appellants and sentence the appellants to rigorous imprisonment of one year and fine of Rs. 2,000/- each and in default, simple imprisonment for one month for the offence punishable under Sections 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as “the PC Act”) and rigorous imprisonment of four years and fine of Rs. 3,000/- each and in default, simple imprisonment of six months for the offence punishable under Section 13(1)(d)(1)(2)(3) read with Section 13(2) of the PC Act. Both the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

1.1 Criminal Appeal No. 1268/2004 has been filed by the original accused nos. 1 and 2 and Criminal Appeal No. 1270/2004 has been filed by the original accused no. 3 against the same impugned judgement and order passed by the learned Trial Court in Special ACB Case No. 21/1997 on 29.07.2004 and hence, both the appeals have been disposed of by this common judgement.

1.3 The appellants of Criminal Appeal No. 1268/2004 and appellant of Criminal Appeal No. 1270/2004 are referred as the accused in the rank and file as they stood in the original case for the sake of convenience, clarity and brevity.

2. The brief facts that emerge from the record of the case are as under:

2.1 In the year 1996, the accused nos. 1 and 2 were Unarmed Head Constables and the accused no. 3 was a Driver Police Constable and all were posted at the Vejalpur Police Station, Ahmedabad City and were public servants. The complainant - Kirankumar Manubhai Rathod, Police Inspector, ACB Police Station, Ahmedabad had received confirmed information that the Traffic Police and Local Police were halting passenger and heavy goods vehicles at various traffic points and entry points to the city and were demanding some amounts of illegal gratification for not doing any legal procedure against them. To verify the same and if necessary to do the procedure, the complainant decided to arrange a decoy trap and on 20.11.1996 called two panch witnesses and informed them about the decoy trap. Head Constable - Satuji Chawda was instructed to take the necessary items for the trap and the panchnama part-I was drawn between 05.10 to 05.30 am. They all sat in the government vehicles and went to Pleasant Restaurant on the Sarkhej Highway Road and at about 06.10 truck no. RJ-19-G-3309 was halted and driver Chunilal Thakarram Chaudhary, a resident of Jalori Gate, Taluka & District Jodhpur was informed about the decoy trap and he consented to act as the decoy. Head Constable Satuji Chawda was given six currency notes of the denomination of Rs. 10/- each and one currency note of the denomination of Rs. 5/- and the demonstration of anthracene powder and ultraviolet lamp was carried out in the presence of the panch witnesses and the decoy. All the curr