HYDERABAD, 6 December 2004 — A former sessions judge of a Hyderabad city criminal court, whose conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court in a bribery case, surrendered before the Principal Special Court for Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Cases on Saturday and was sent to Cherlapally central jail to undergo three years’ imprisonment.
Janardhana Rao, a member of Andhra Pradesh Higher Judicial Services, while working as third metropolitan sessions judge at Hyderabad, was found guilty of accepting a bribe of 300,000 rupees on Sept. 4, 1996 for recording acquittal of an accused in a murder case.
Bureau sleuths had set a trap in Warangal town when the judge demanded the bribe from the complainant, Sant Esher Singh, an accused in the murder of a Sikh leader, Sardar Joga Singh, in the city on March 30, 1989. The murder was a sequel to a dispute over gurdwara property in Bidar.
On Feb. 29, 2000, the principal sessions judge for ACB cases convicted and sentenced Janardhana Rao to three years’ rigorous imprisonment. He was also asked to pay a fine of 3,000 rupees. The court acquitted his wife and son.
Rao appealed to the Andhra Pradesh High Court and was acquitted of corruption charges on Jan 9, 2003. The ACB appealed that decision in the Supreme Court which set aside the high court judgment.
A two-member bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice B. N. Agrawal and Justice A. K. Mathur, upheld the trial court’s judgment and confirmed the conviction on Nov. 20. The court observed that “we find that the trial court was justified in relying upon the witnesses’ evidence to prove the circumstance.”
Before the police could execute the warrant for the re-arrest of the convicted ex-judge, he surrendered in the ACB court and requested the principal sessions judge to send him to Warangal jail as he hailed from that area. However, after going through the rule book, the court sent him to Cherlapally jail to serve his prison term.
