High Court trashes hostile witness, convicts commercial tax officials for graft

Even a witness turning hostile during trial couldn't save a commercial tax officer & his assistant facing corruption charges from punishment, as Madras HC made light of the discrepancy & reversed an acquittal order by the trial court.

Justice M Dhandapani, asserting that minor contradictions, inconsistencies, discrepancies, or embellishments in the evidence of witnesses willn't affect the substratum of the prosecute, set aside the acquittal of an assistant commercial tax officer & his assistant charged with accepting bribe of 500 in 2003.

Justice Dhandapani convicted the duo under the Prevention of Corruption Act & sentenced them to one year imprisonment along with a fine of 5,000 each.

Relying on various Top Court orders, Justice Dhandapani said: "Even if a witness, who is crucial to the prosecution, has turned hostile, still, his evidence remains admissible & it could be taken into consideration for appreciating the entire gamut of facts placed before the court." The judgment of acquittal recorded by the trial court is not only perverse, but it suffers the vice of illegality, he said.

The judge passed the order while allowing an appeal moved by the prosecution challenging the order of a Special Court for Cases under Prevention of Corruption Act, Tirunelveli dated Apr 28, 2015.

According to the prosecution, Vazhivittan, assistant commercial tax officer & Abdul Majeed, his assistant were caught red-handed while accepting bribe from a contractor enlisted with the department. The contractor approached the officers to seek refund of 2,500 security deposit pending with the department.

To process the release of the deposit, the officers demanded 300 & 200 respectively.

Subsequently, they were charged under sections 7 & 13 (2) r/w 13(1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. However, they were acquitted by the trial court. Challenging the same the prosecution has moved the present appeal.

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