TIRUNELVELI: The Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Prevention of Corruption Act cases, Tirunelveli, has discharged a daily wage labourer in a 2012 case where he gave Rs 20 bribe allegedly demanded by a court clerk to give him certified copy of a case that was filed against him. The then principal district munsif-cum-judicial magistrate of Nanguneri was the complainant and witness in the case.
The petitioner, N Murugan of Kalakkad, was accused of paying bribe of Rs 20, allegedly demanded by the court’s record clerk Mariappan, in the open court for issuing a certified copy of a case filed against him in 2012. Magistrate V Sundararaj lodged a complaint with Nanguneri police. The case was taken over by DVAC in 2019.
Mariappan died in 2023 during pendency of the case, and Murugan filed a discharge petition this year. “This court holds that there is no material in the charge sheet filed by the prosecution to show that the complainant, with a criminal intent, instigated the first accused by giving him Rs 20, which the latter received and issued a copy to the complainant,” special judge R Subbiah ruled.