Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 20: High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh today refused to quash FIR against Joyti Devi, ex-JMC Councilor of BJP and her husband Sham Lal, who were booked by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in a corruption case.
According to the ACB, the complainant was allotted work for upgradation of an open area in Ward No 53 of Trikuta Nagar. After completion of the work, he approached concerned Councilor for issuance of mulba clearance certificate. For this, the Councilor demanded Rs 10,000 as bribe and asked the complainant to contact her husband for payment of bribe money.
Upon receiving the complaint, ACB constituted a trap team and accused Sham Lal was caught red handed while demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 10,000 on behalf of his wife Jyoti Devi. Both the accused persons were taken into custody on the spot.
After hearing both the sides, Justice Sanjay Dhar observed, “from the material on record, the allegations made in the impugned FIR against the petitioners get fully substantiated. Thus, it cannot be stated that the allegations made in the impugned FIR against the petitioners are frivolous or vexatious as has been claimed by the petitioners”.
“So far as the contention of counsel for the petitioners that there was no requirement of malba clearance certificate for release of the payment in favour of the complainant is concerned, the same does not have bearing on the instant case, because the fact of the matter remains that petitioner was a Councilor at the relevant time and in that capacity she was in a position to issue the malba clearance certificate. Whether or not production of such a certificate was mandatory for release of the payment is of no consequence. Once it is shown that petitioner was in a position to issue such a certificate and for issuance of the certificate she had demanded and accepted the bribe amount through her husband the offence under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, is made out”, High Court said.
With these observations, High Court refused to quash the impugned FIR and the proceedings emanating there from.
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