CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has indicted trial courts for erroneously convicting government servants over taking bribes in six separate cases even as the prosecution failed to prove them.
A single judge bench of Justice Gourishankar Satapathy indicted the special Vigilance courts while issuing identical acquittal orders recently in six cases in which government servants were convicted and sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment in five cases and six months in one case. All the cases were more than 10 years old.
All the six acquittal orders were issued on criminal appeals on February 5. As the convicts were on bail upon appeal, the high court discharged their bail bonds.
Justice Satapathy observed, “The trial court has erroneously appreciated the evidence on record and convicted the appellant (convict) without considering the fact that the demand and acceptance of bribe by the accused (convict) has not been established beyond all reasonable doubts.”
While in one case, Raj Kishore Mishra, revenue inspector at tehsildar office (Puri) was convicted for taking bribe of Rs 1,000 in connection with mutation of land in 2010, in another case Parameswar Nanda Goswami, a junior engineer posted at Bangiriposi block in Mayurbhanj district was convicted for taking Rs 2,600 bribe from an Indira Awaas Yojana beneficiary in 2014. The state Vigilance had registered the two cases in 1998 and 2000 respectively.
Justice Satapathy also acquitted Dibakar Sethi, a record keeper in tehsil office, Borigumma (Koraput). He was convicted for taking Rs 50 as bribe for supplying certified copy of Record of Right (ROR) in 2006. Similarly, Pradip Kumar Pattanaik, a dealing assistant at PHD sub-division office, Bhubaneswar was convicted for taking Rs 200 bribe for processing application for providing sewerage connection in 2010. The cases were registered in March 1995 and 1997 respectively.
The other two acquittal orders were issued in the cases of Santosh Kumar Mishra, a progress assistant-cum-gram panchayat extension officer at the BDO office of Agalopur in Balangir district, who was convicted for taking Rs 1,000 bribe to prepare papers for disbursal of short-term loans under government scheme in 2005 and Rebati Ballav Tripathy, a sub-inspector of Excise posted at Sundargarh for taking Rs 200 bribe for closing a case following a raid in 2010. The cases were registered in 2005 and 1997 respectively.
In one acquittal order, Justice Satapathy observed, “Mere acceptance/ recovery of currency notes alleged to be illegal gratification without the proof of demand ipso facto would thus not be sufficient to establish the charge against the appellant.”