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Dashrath Singh Chauhan v. Central Bureau of Investigation

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 940Decided 9 Oct 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 1276 of 2010
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Indu Malhotra

Background

The appellant, an Inspector with the Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking (DESU), was alleged to have demanded Rs. 4,000 as a bribe from a complainant seeking an electricity connection, and to have directed the complainant to hand the money to a co-accused, Rajinder Kumar, who was then caught red-handed with the cash by a CBI raiding party. The trial court acquitted both the appellant and Rajinder Kumar of criminal conspiracy, acquitted Rajinder Kumar entirely, but still convicted the appellant under Sections 7 and 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, relying on a shadow witness's evidence. The Delhi High Court upheld this conviction, and the State did not appeal either acquittal, so those became final.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that since the conspiracy charge against both accused had failed, and Rajinder Kumar (who actually received and was caught with the money) was fully acquitted of the substantive bribery charges, the appellant could not be convicted on the theory that Rajinder Kumar accepted the money "on his behalf": that theory depended entirely on the conspiracy charge that had already failed and attained finality. The Court reasoned that proving bribery under the PC Act requires proof of both "demand" and "acceptance" of the bribe by the accused, and here the prosecution could show at most a demand by the appellant but not acceptance by him, since the money was recovered from the co-accused who had been cleanly acquitted. The appeal was allowed, the conviction and sentence were set aside, and the appellant was acquitted and need not surrender if already on bail.

Lesson Learnt

A bribery conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act requires proof of both demand and actual acceptance of the bribe by the specific accused; if the "acceptance" element relies on a conspiracy theory that has already failed (and the person who actually took the money has been acquitted), the person who merely allegedly demanded the bribe cannot be convicted on that unproven theory alone.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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