Delhi Court Convicts Delhi Police ASI, 2 Others For Offering Bribe To Judge To Secure Job

A Delhi court (Rouse Avenue District Court) on Monday convicted Delhi Police ASI Tara Dutt, one Mukul Kumar, and Ramesh Kumar for offering bribes to a judge to secure a job for Mukul Kumar.The Special Judge Kiran Bansal found them guilty of offering a bribe to Chandra Shekhar, Additional Sessions Judge, Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi of Rs.50,000/ so as to secure a job (peon at Delhi district courts) for one of the convicts, Mukul Kumar.The case in briefAs per the prosecution's case, it was their common object to offer a bribe to the complainant [Chandra Shekhar, Additional Sessions Judge, Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi] for showing favor to the accused no. 2 Mukul Kumar, as Judge Shekhar was a member of Recruitment Committee for recruitment of Peons for the Court. ASI Dutt handed over an envelope with the words "SECRET" written on the same and containing Rs.50,000/ cash and a photocopy of the roll number of Mukul who was to appear for interview for the post of orderlies. He also tried to meet him but Judge Shekhar refused to meet him and thus, he left the envelope with Naib of the court for delivering the same to Judge Shekhar stating that he would understand on seeing the contents.The envelope in question (containing amount along with roll no. for showing favor to the candidate) was to be given to judge Shekhar who was a board member of the recruitment committee (conducting interviews). It was intended that after getting the money, the judge would favor Mukul for the post of a peon at Delhi district courts.It was also revealed during the probe that Dutt had contacted Dayanand Sharma (special metropolitan magistrate) so that he may talk to Chandra Shekhar, who was a member of the Interview Board for the recommendation.Thereafter, an FIR was registered under Section 12 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 r/w Section 120B of IPC against the accused ASI Tara Dutt and Mukul Kumar. During the investigation, it was revealed that Daya Nand Sharma, Special Metropolitan Magistrate, S.D.M.C. Najafgarh Zone, New Delhi is a relative (chacha sasur) of accused ASI Tara Dutt.During trial proceedings accused Dayanand Sharma expired on 17.04.2019 and thereafter, proceedings against him stood abated vide order dated 07.05.2019.Court's observations At the outset, the Court observed that CDRs proved that the accused persons were in constant contact with each other during the relevant period and in fact, some of the calls were of late-night which led to a clear inference that the accused persons were known to each other.Regarding the charge of criminal conspiracy, the Court noted that to convict a person for conspiracy, the prosecution must show that all accused agreed with each others to accomplish the unlawful object of conspiracy. Further, the Court held that it was satisfied that there was a reasonable ground to believe the existence of the conspiracy and that is a matter for judicial inference from proved facts and circumstances.Lastly, keeping in view the aforesaid discussion, the Court held that the prosecution had succeeded in proving beyond reasonable doubt that the accused persons namely Tara Dutt, Mukul Kumar and Ramesh Kumar had hatched a criminal conspiracy to abet Chander Shekhar, Judge, a public servant to accept an amount of Rs.50,000/ and pursuant to aforesaid criminal conspiracy, accused Tara Dutt had delivered an envelope containing the aforesaid amount for favoring Mukul Kumar in the recruitment process on the basis of the following evidence : The testimony of Naib Surender Kumar being reliable, trustworthy and consistent. The CDRs of the accused persons showing that they were in regular touch with each other at the relevant time. Photocopy of the roll number of accused Mukul Kumar placed in an envelope with the amount of Rs.50,000/. The presence of accused no. 1 Tara Dutt was clearly established at Tis Hazari Court at the relevant time, as per the testimony of PW3, Cell ID Chart showing the mobile location of the accused and the CCTV footage.Therefore, accused Tara Dutt, Mukul Kumar, and Ramesh were accordingly held guilty for the offence punishable under section 120B IPC and section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 read with Section 120B IPC.Click Here To read JudgmentRead Judgment

Delhi Court Convicts Delhi Police ASI, 2 Others For Offering Bribe To Judge To Secure Job

Sparsh Upadhyay

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