Dear All,
The following appeared in "Times of India", Mumbai Edition on February 28,2009, page no. 21.
May be useful for future references.
INTROSPECTION :
IF, repeat, IF in all criminal cases, the accused could now claim that the Police has demanded Bribe. The evidence for the act of giving Bribe can be subtaintiated by a relative / friend of the accused.
MAYBE, this would help bring down the cops demand of bribe, for fear of re-payment + Interest.
The funny thing is that even though Bribe giving and Bribe taking, both are offences, the Bribe taker in this case cannot even appeal against this order, in view of several HC judgments against Police for taking Bribes / police excess.
Keep Smiling ... HemantAgarwal
Return bribe with interest, cops told
Sonepat: Eleven years ago, when SHO Gulshan Rai and assistant sub-inspector Rao Ramkumar winked at murder accused Mukesh Kumar, asking
the terrified man to shell out Rs 30,000 to escape torture at the police station, they hardly knew that one day they would not only have to return to the victim the principal amount, but also a healthy 9% interest.
In a spectacular ruling, perhaps the first of its kind, a Sonepat court has ordered both the policemen to return the bribe, along with the interest, to a relieved Mukesh.
On February 16, 1998, the city police arrested Mukesh after a murder victim’s kin accused him of involvement in the crime. It was during his three-day remand that Mukesh agreed to pay Rs 30,000 to Rai and Rao, his interrogators, so that he wouldn’t be tortured. But tortured he was.
‘‘Though I did as told, they still inflicted third degree on me,’’ Mukesh said in his suit filed before a civil court soon after his discharge in the case on March 23, 1998.
Handing out the judgment, the court of civil judge (senior division) R P Goyal directed Rai and Rao to return the hush money to Mukesh. The court issued simultaneous directions for continuing criminal proceedings against them.
