New Delhi, The Supreme Court has acquitted a public servant in an over two-decade-old corruption case filed after a trap was laid over an alleged bribery demand, while flagging the “serious lacuna and impatience” of the CBI in the investigation.
The top court, which delivered its verdict on his appeals challenging the May 2024 orders of the Kerala High Court that had affirmed his conviction and sentence by a special trial court, noted that “the trap was not permitted to run its full course” and the CBI could not prove that the recovered “bribe” money was meant for him.
It is also noticed that the CBI arranged the two independent trap witnesses at a very short period of time before the execution of the trap,” the bench said in its verdict delivered on September 16. “Keeping into consideration the observations made by the trial court in para 150 of its judgment as reproduced above, we are of the view that there are certainly elements of doubt in the manner the trap was executed, which the trial court ignored. The investigation culminated in the filing of multiple final reports and institution of several prosecutions founded on distinct alleged transactions of illegal gratification. The bench noted that the trial court had brushed aside the doubts raised by the appellant.
The lapses noted by the trial court, in our opinion, raise reasonable doubt on the prosecution case,” it said. “It is relevant to consider the reason the trap was not permitted to run its full course as against the appellant,” the bench said, adding, if the money was ultimately meant to reach the appellant, the probe agency ought to have kept a watch on him and not merely on the person, who was later examined as an approver prosecution witness during the trial. “This is a serious lacuna and impatience of the CBI in the investigation conducted by it would enure to the benefit of the appellant,” it said.
“It is surprising that the CBI started the investigation of a cognizable offence by way of verifying the complaint of bribery even before the formal FIR was lodged.
