CRLMB11854/2010

CRLMB11973/2010

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN

BENCH AT JAIPUR

ORDER

IN

1. S.B. Cr. Misc. Bail Application No.11854/2010

Pushpa Manawat Vs. State of

Rajasthan

through

Public

Prosecutor

2. S.B. Cr. Misc. Bail Application No.11973/2010

Naresh Kumar Badwan Vs. The State

of Rajasthan through Public

Prosecutor

Date of Order ::: 08.04.2011

Hon'ble Mr. Justice Mohammad Rafiq

Shri Manish Kumar Sharma and

Shri Mahesh Gupta, counsel for petitioners Pushpa

Manawat (11854/2010) and Naresh Kumar Badwan

(11973/2010)

Shri Piyush Kumar, Public Prosecutor

####

By the Court:-

Heard learned counsel for petitioners as

well as learned Public Prosecutor and perused

material made available to me during course of

arguments.

These two bail applications have been filed

by petitioners, namely, (1) Pushpa Manawat, who was

at relevant time working as Programme Officer,

Panchayat Samiti – Javaja, and (2) Naresh Kumar

Badwan, who was at relevant time working as Block

Development Officer in the said Panchayat Samiti.

Learned counsel argued that petitioner

Pushpa Manawat was appointed only to work as

Programme Officer and that too on contract basis;

as per report of special enquiry conducted by Shri

Mahendra Singh Bhukar, Joint Director, Directorate

of Social Audit, Jaipur, the responsibility of

maintaining measurement-book with reference to

actual measurement on the ground and making payment

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CRLMB11973/2010

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of works executed, was that of (1) Ganpat Singh

Malawat, Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat, (2) Bagdaram

Prajapat,

Junior

Engineer/Senior

Technical

Assistant, (3) Manish Mittal, Junior Technical

Assistant and (4) Lal Chandra Yogi, Gram Sewak-cum-

Secretary, Gram Panchayat Malaton-Ki-Bair. Learned

counsel in this connection referred to the

statement of Shri Mahendra Singh Bhukar recorded

under Section 161 Cr.P.C. during investigation.

Allegation against both petitioners is that they

countersigned completion certificate for such work

executed. So far as petitioner Pushpa Manwat is

concerned, her duty was to forward completion

certificate to Zila Parishad and it was no part of

duty of petitioner Naresh Kumar Badwan, the Block

Development Officer, to make the counter-signature

on completion certificate, which, in any case, was

required to be sent to Executive Engineer in Zila

Parishad.

Learned counsel for petitioners contended

that it is not even case of prosecution that making

signature by petitioners in any manner facilitated

payment of sub standard or partly executed work to

the concerned contractors, the executing agency, as

per report of the special enquiry team as also the

statement of Shri Mahendra Singh Bhukar, of these

development works in the MNREGA is Gram Panchayat

concerned and according to the special enquiry

report/statement, Sarpanch and Gram Sevak are

responsible for payment of cash and maintenance of

cash-book and Junior Technical Assistant/Junior

Engineer is required to take actual measurement of

work under supervision of the Assistant Engineer

concerned. Learned counsel argued that in the

charge-sheet filed on 23.09.2010 the Investigating

Officer has also found these four persons, namely,

Bagda Ram, Lal Chand Yogi, Manish Mittal and Ganpat

Singh Malawat, responsible for committing offence

under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 409 IPC. The

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maximum that can be said for the petitioners is

that if they had been vigilant enough, probably the

recovery proceedings would have been started much

earlier. Recovery has been ordered by the

government from those four persons and not from

present petitioners because they are not in any

manner responsible for payment. The petitioners

were arrested on 20.11.2010 and since then they are

in jail. Challan has been filed. Petitioner Pushpa

Manawat has a c