Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 31: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has upheld the conviction of Madan Lal, Patwari Halqa Chatha-Satwari, who was booked for demanding and accepting bribe for issuance of a “Fard”.
A Bench presided over by Justice Rajesh Sekhri dismissed the plea finding no illegality or perversity in the trial court verdict dated May 24, 2014, passed by the Special Judge, Anti-Corruption, Jammu.
As per the prosecution, complainant Gurjeet Singh had approached the Patwari to obtain a Fard for execution of a sale deed regarding 11 marlas of land to be purchased from Balwant Kour. The Patwari allegedly demanded Rs 11,000 as gratification, later settled at Rs 9,000.
Following the complaint, FIR No. 5/2006 was registered by the Vigilance Organization, Jammu, and a trap team was constituted. The prosecution alleged that the accused accepted Rs 9,000 from the complainant and was caught red-handed, with the tainted amount recovered from his possession along with the application for issuance of Fard. The sodium carbonate/phenolphthalein test reportedly returned positive.
The trial court had convicted him for offences under Section 5(1) read with 5(2) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006, and Section 161 RPC, and sentenced him to one year simple imprisonment on each count, along with a fine of Rs 30,000.
While upholding the conviction and sentence, the High Court ordered that the appellant’s bail bonds stand cancelled and directed him to surrender before the Superintendent of the concerned jail within seven days to serve the remaining sentence, failing which the trial court was asked to proceed in accordance with law.
The appellant was represented by Senior Advocate P N Raina with Advocate J A Hamal, while the State was represented by AAG Raman Sharma assisted by Advocate Jagmeet Kour and Advocate Saliqa Sheikh.
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