Law: Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947

Section: 5-B,5-C,5(2)

(a) Prevention of Corruption Act (II of 1947)--- ----Ss. 5-B, 5-C & 5(2)---Declaration of assets, made assets disproportionate to known sources of income, criminal misconduct---Appreciation of evidence---Benefit of doubt---Delay in lodging FIR not explained---Scope---Accused was charged for criminal misconduct and making assets beyond his means and also failed to furnish declaration of his assets---Record showed that the present case was initiated against the accused on the basis of complaint which, as per statement of Investigating Officer, was received by him from the Directorate of Anti Corruption Establishment on 15.08.1995---It was not understandable as to how Investigating Officer took a long period of about two years in ascertaining the truth or otherwise of the contents of said complaint, as admittedly FIR was registered on 05.07.1997---There was also lethargy of great scale on the part of complainant in moving such complaint as he himself admitted in his complaint that accused was involved in corruption and misappropriation from last twenty years---However, it had not been explained that if the accused was involved in the acts of corruption for the last twenty years and thereby accumulated properties which were beyond his known sources of income, then as to what prevented the complainant to move complaint against the accused at an earlier stage---Even if it was presumed, for the sake of arguments, that the Investigating Officer registered the FIR after receiving permission from the competent authority, even then there was delay of about eleven days in lodging the FIR according to his own admission made in his evidence---Even, no explanation had been offered in the FIR for such delay---Such fact spoke volumes about the conduct of prosecution, which created doubt regarding involvement of the accused in the commission of alleged offence---Circumstances established that prosecution had not been successful in proving its case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt---Appeal against conviction was accordingly allowed. Ayub Masih v. The State PLD 2002 SC 1048 and Syed Altaf Hussain Shah v. State 2018 YLR 482 rel. (b) Prevention of Corruption Act (II of…

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