Cuttack: Orissa High Court has ruled that mere receipt of amount by a person is not sufficient to hold him guilty of taking bribe when there is absence of evidence regarding the demand and acceptance of money as illegal gratification.

The single judge bench of Justice S.K.Sahoo gave the ruling while giving the benefit of doubt to a public servant and acquitting him of taking a bribe of Rs 1,000 for which the CBI court in Bhubaneswar had sentenced him to four years in prison.

Seven years ago the CBI, Bhubaneswar, had registered the incident of bribe as a trap case against Shyam Sundar Prusty, a LIC branch manager at Sector 19 in Rourkela. In 2014, the special judge (CBI), Bhubaneswar, had convicted and sentenced the LIC official to undergo imprisonment for six months and pay fine of Rs 10,000.

Prusty had challenged the lower court's order in the high court in 2014 and he was granted interim bail. His appeal languished in the court till it was allowed on March 12.

The high court felt that the prosecution had failed to establish the guilt of the accused and the trial court had overlooked supportive evidence.

The accused had claimed that the amount recovered from his possession was a loan that the complainant had taken from him.

"Since the demand of bribe aspect is shrouded in mystery which is the gravamen of the offences charged and the defence plea is acceptable and the reasoning assigned by the trial court is faulty, in my considered opinion, guilt of the appellant (Shyam Sundar Prusty) has not been established beyond all reasonable doubt and therefore, I am constrained to give benefit of doubt to the appellant," Justice S.K.Sahoo ruled.

"In the result, the criminal appeal is allowed. The impugned judgment and order of conviction of the appellant and the sentence passed there under is 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," Justice Sahoo said in his order.