Cuttack: Orissa High Court has ruled that genuineness of trap cases registered by the state vigilance becomes doubtful when there is no clinching evidence about demand for bribe.

The court gave the ruling while giving the benefit of doubt to a public servant and acquitting him of taking bribe of Rs 150 for issuing medical fitness certificate for which the vigilance court in Sambalpur had sentenced him to undergo imprisonment nearly 10 years ago. The alleged case of bribe against the public servant was registered as a trap case by the Sambalpur vigilance on November 11, 2000.

The special judge (vigilance), Sambalpur, had sentenced him to one year imprisonment and fined him Rs 1,000 on August 26, 2008.

The trap cases involving bribery are registered against officials on complaints received from the public.

Sushil Kumar Pati, an orthopaedic specialist at the government hospital in Rourkela challenged it with an appeal petition in the high court the same year. Pati was granted interim bail. His appeal had since languished till it was allowed on May 30.

The high court felt that the prosecution case suffered from "serious infirmities" and the reasoning assigned by the trial court was "faulty" and it appeared that its judgment was "one-sided in favour of the prosecution".

"I am fully satisfied that sufficient, cogent and reliable evidence is not available on record which established the guilt of the appellant. Once the story of demand falls through, the authenticity of the trap becomes highly doubtful because acceptance of bribe germinates through demand," the single-judge bench of Justice S.K. Sahoo ruled.

"In the absence of any clinching evidence relating to the demand and acceptance of the bribe money by the appellant (Dr Sushil Kumar Pati) and the fact that there is possibility of planting the tainted money, I am of the view that the guilt of the appellant has not been established beyond all reasonable doubt and therefore, I am constrained to give benefit of doubt to the appellant," Justice Sahoo observed in his May 30 order, a copy of the full text of which was made available on Friday.

"In the result, the criminal appeal is allowed. The impugned judgment and order of conviction of the trial court and the sentence passed there under is hereby set aside and the appellant is acquitted of all the charges. The appellant is on bail by virtue of the order of this court. He is discharged from liability of his bail bond. The personal bond and the surety bond stand cancelled," the order said.

Vigilance raid

Vigilance sleuths on Saturday raided the office and residence of Ghumusar DFO (south forest division) Bijay Ketan Acharya on charges of amassing disproportionate assets.