Srinagar, Apr 06: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh suspended the one-year imprisonment awarded to Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) in a corruption case and granted him bail.
The court of Justice M A Chowdhary suspended the sentence of ASI Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, who was convicted by Special Judge, Anti-Corruption, Srinagar and sentenced to one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 500 from the complainant.
Justice Chowdhary directed the appellant to furnish a bail bond to the tune of Rs 50,000 with one surety to the like amount to the satisfaction of the concerned Superintendent of Jail.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by ASI Shah challenging the judgment through counsel Sajad Ahmad Mir submitting that the trial court has heavily relied upon the legal presumption under Section 4 of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, which was not applicable in view of the Supreme Court judgments as the appellant had successfully rebutted the same. Admitting the appeal, the court suspended the sentence of Shah and granted him bail while imposing several conditions.
The court listed the matter for hearing on May 18 this year. In September 2008, a complaint was lodged by a resident of Charar-e-Sharief, Budgam, claiming that Shah, who was posted at Police Station Charar-e-Sharief in Budgam, had intercepted him while he was transporting three quintals of rice and demanded a bribe of Rs 500.
It was alleged that Shah accepted the bribe and returned only two quintals of rice, keeping one quintal for himself. The complainant had stated that he demanded an additional Rs 1,000 bribe, which the complainant reduced to Rs 500.
The complainant informed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) which laid a trap and caught Shah red-handed while accepting the bribe. The tainted money was recovered from his possession.
