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Kannan v. State rep. by Inspector of Police (with M. Nadimuthu v. State of Tamil Nadu)

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 809Decided 12 Sept 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 1580 of 2011
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice Indira Banerjee

Background

Two accused, M. Nadimuthu, an Assistant Commercial Tax Officer (A-1), and Kannan (A-2), were convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act for demanding and accepting a bribe. After inspecting a grocery shop and seizing its accounts book in 1994, A-1 demanded Rs. 2,000 (later reduced to Rs. 800) from the shop owner's son to return the seized book and process a registration application. When the complainant reported this to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Wing, a trap was arranged; the complainant paid the bribe to A-2 on A-1's direction, and both were caught red-handed (confirmed by a sodium carbonate solution test). The trial court convicted both and sentenced them to two years' rigorous imprisonment, which the High Court upheld on conviction but reduced to one year on sentence.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court rejected the appellants' arguments that the complainant's evidence was uncorroborated and that there was no proof A-2 had made any demand. It found that the complainant's testimony about the bribe demand and payment was corroborated by two other witnesses: the accompanying witness (who, despite turning hostile, still confirmed in his main testimony that the complainant paid money to A-2 on A-1's direction) and the office assistant (who independently described A-1 instructing A-2 to accept the money). Given these corroborating accounts, the physical trap evidence, and the concurrent factual findings of both the trial court and the High Court, the Supreme Court saw no good reason to take a different view. The appeals were dismissed, upholding the convictions and the one-year sentence, with the appellants directed to surrender within eight weeks to serve the remaining sentence.

Lesson Learnt

In corruption cases involving an anti-corruption trap, a bribe-taker's conviction can stand even if the main witness later turns hostile on some points, so long as other independent witnesses and physical trap evidence corroborate the demand and acceptance of the bribe, and appellate courts give strong weight to consistent factual findings reached by two lower courts.

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

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