ORDER

Accused Nos.2 and 1 in Crime No.52/2023 registered by Karnataka Lokayukta police, Bangalore Division, for the offences punishable under Section 7(a) of Prevention of Corruption Act (Amendment Act 2018), are before this

Court under Section 439 of Cr.P.C. in these two petitions.

2. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and also the learned counsel appearing for the respondent, who has filed his statement of objection.

3. Facts leading to filing of these petitions are, the original allottee Sri. Vijay Bachubai was allotted an

industrial plot bearing No.110 measuring 1 acre at Sompura Industrial Area of Nelamangala Taluk. For a considerable period of time, the KIADB had not issued the plan approval to the allottee. Therefore, the allottee was forced to give a letter of authority dated 15.11.2023 in favour of the defacto complainant Sri. Narayana Swamy K. for the purpose of getting the plan approved from KIADB to the industrial plot allotted to him. The defacto complainant in turn had approached Accused No.1 who was working as Assistant Executive Engineer in KIADB. Accused No.1 allegedly had demanded illegal gratification of Rs.2 Lakhs for approving the plan. On negotiation, the said amount was reduced to Rs.1,50,000/-. Since the defacto complainant did not intend to pay the illegal gratification amount to accused No.1, he had recorded the conversation between himself and accused No.1 and approached Lokayukta Police and had filed a complaint which had resulted in registering FIR No.52/2023 on 23.11.2023 against accused No.1 and thereafter a trap was laid on the same day and accused No.2 was

apprehended red-handed while receiving the bribe amount of Rs.1,20,000/- from the complainant. The said amount was seized and subjected to panchanama and thereafter the hands of accused No.2 was also subjected to chemical examination. Subsequently, accused No.1 was arrested on the same day and both the accused were produced before the jurisdictional court and remanded to judicial custody. Their bail applications filed before the Court of XXIII Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge cum Special Judge (P.C. Act) Bengaluru (C.C.H.24) in Crime No.52/2023 were rejected on 02.12.2023 and therefore the petitioners are before this Court.

4. Learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners submits that major portion of the investigation has been completed. There cannot be any apprehension that the accused are likely to flee from justice. They are in custody from 23.11.2023. Accordingly, he prays to allow the petition.

5. Per contra, the learned counsel appearing for the respondent, who has filed statement of objections to the bail application submits that an amount of Rs.1,50,000/- was demanded as bribe in this case and he prays to dismiss the case.

6. As per the prosecution case, a demand was made by Accused No.1 for payment of illegal gratification of Rs.1,50,000/- for approving the plan to the industrial plot which was allotted to the original allottee. Since the defacto complainant did not intend to pay the illegal gratification amount, he had recorded the conversation with accused No.1 and thereafter approached the Lokayukta Police. In the trap that was laid on 23.11.2023, accused No.2 was allegedly caught red-handed while receiving bribe amount of Rs.1,20,000/- from the defacto complainant. The said amount was subjected to panchanama and the hands of accused No.2 who received the bribe amount was also subjected to chemical examination. Major portion of the investigation is

completed. Petitioners who are working as Assistant Executive Engineer and Assistant Engineer are in custody from 23.11.2023 onwards. As rightly contended by the learned Senior counsel for the petitioners, since the petitioners are government servants, likelihood of petitioners fleeing from justice cannot be there. Under these circumstances, I am of the view that the prayer made by the petitioners for grant of bail is required to be answered affirmatively. Accordingly, the