TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1997 (12) TMI 635
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....spector (Wasil Baki Nawis) in a sub-Tehsil Nainital District. The nub of the case against him is that he received Rs. 400/- as bribe from PW5 Satpal for doing an official act and he was caught red- handed with the bribed amount by the anti-corruption officials. After obtaining sanction from the government, respondent was challaned. In his defence, he disputed the entire incident and contended that it was a concocted case against him. More details about the case: a person by name Naubat was in occupation of a certain land situate in the sub- Tehsil Kaladhungi (Nainital district). Since the occupation was illegal proceedings have been afoot for evicting him. PW-5- Satpal Singh purchased the right of Naubat and approached the respondent for r....
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....dent witnesses. (3) There is material contradiction between the evidence of PW4 and PW6 regarding preparation of recovery-memo. (4) The solution (used for conducting phenolphthalein test) collected in a phial after washing the tainted fingers of the respondent was not sent to the Chemical Examiner.(5) Nobody over-head the demand made by the delinquent officer for bribe. (6) The fact that currency notes were recovered from left pocket of the respondent verges the story on improbability because it was not suggested anywhere that respondent was a left-handed person. Complainants evidence was jettisoned on the mere ground that since he had a grouse against the delinquent public servant he might falsely have implicated the latter. Such a premis....
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....judge concluded that evidence of P W 5 was not supported by independent corroboration. In so concluding he termed the two panch witnesses (Pw6 and PW7) as "pocket witnesses." PW7 is described as pocket-witness because he drove the vehicle of the DSP of Anti-Corruption Bureau and PW6 was so termed because he had appeared as a witness in one or two other cases charge-sheeted by the police. Learned single judge commented about PW6 that "he can easily be tutored to depose anything at the behest of the police." It is evidence that PW6 was examined as a witness in a case at Moradabad in which he himself was the complainant against a doctor who demanded bribe from him. He also admitted that he was a witness in two other cases though he was not ye....
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.... is that of PW-4 - Harendra Singh Sirohi, the Superintendent of Police who arranged the trap. We must mind the fact that he had no interest against the respondent. But the verve shown by him to bring his trap to a success is no ground to think that he had any animosity against the delinquent officer. He made arrangements to smear the phenolphtalein powder on the currency notes in order to satisfy himself that the public servant had in fact received the bribe and not that currency notes were just thrust into the pocket of an unwilling officer. Such a test in conducted for his conscientious satisfaction that he was proceeding against a real bribe taker and that an officer with integrity is not harassed unnecessarily. The evidence of such a w....