Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 7: High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has upheld the acquittal judgment of the Special Judge Anticorruption Jammu whereby Assistant Professor Ashu Jolly was acquitted in a trap case.
After hearing Senior AAG Monika Kohli for the ACB whereas Senior Advocate Abhinav Sharma with Advocate Abhirash Sharma for the respondent, Justice Rajnesh Oswal observed, “proof of demand of illegal gratification is gravamen of an offence Under Section 5(1) (d) read with Section 5(2) and 4-A of Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006 and in absence of the same, the charge therefore would obliviously fail”.
“Mere acceptance of any amount allegedly by way of illegal gratification or recovery thereof, without proof of the demand would not be sufficient to bring home the charge against the respondent. This court has examined the judgement passed by the trial court and finds that the trial court has not taken into consideration the statements of few witnesses and even if this court remands the matter back to the trial court on that ground, it would be of no consequence as the prosecution case has various inconsistencies, infirmities and material contradictions”, Justice Oswal said.
“In such circumstances the acquittal of the respondent cannot be reversed. Trial court has already noted the infirmities as pointed out by this court and the opinion formed by the trial court while acquitting the respondent can neither be termed as perverse nor impossible, as such, this court does not find any reason to show indulgence”, Justice Oswal further said .
With these observations, Justice Rajnesh Oswal upheld the judgement of the trial court and dismissed the appeal filed by the Anticorruption Bureau.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel