Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:110103 Court No. - 82 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. BAIL APPLICATION No. - 12026 of 2025 Applicant :- Rampher Pandey Opposite Party :- State of U.P. Counsel for Applicant :- Raghuvansh Misra Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Sameer Jain,J. 1. Heard Sri Raghuvansh Misra, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Jhamman Ram, learned AGA for the State-respondent. 3. The instant application has been filed seeking release of the applicant on bail in Case Crime No. 01 of 2025, under Sections 7, 13(1)(b) and 13(2) Prevention of Corruption Act, Police Station- Anti-corruption, District-Azamgarh, during pendency of the trial in the court below. 4. Learned counsel for the applicant submitted that applicant was Junior Clerk in the office of Child Development Project Office on contractual basis and as per allegation, he made demand of bribe of Rs. 5,000/- from the wife of complainant to release her incentive of Rs. 16,000/- and thereafter he was arrested red handed by the trap-team while he was receiving bribe from the complainant but entire allegation levelled against the applicant is totally false. 5. He further submitted that from perusal of the FIR, it reflects, recovery memo and other documents have not been prepared at spot rather these documents have been prepared at police station and this fact casts serious doubt on the entire trap proceedings. 6. He further submitted that applicant has already retired from service on 31.01.2025 and he is suffering with heart issues and this fact is evident from his discharge summery, which has been annexed at page no. 67 of the paper book. 7. He further submitted that service record of the applicant is unblemished and applicant is not having any criminal history and he is in jail in the present matter since 21.01.2025 i.e. for last almost five months. 8. Per contra, learned AGA opposed the prayer for bail and submitted that applicant was apprehended red handed while he was receiving bribe from the complainant but could not dispute the fact that applicant was not the government employee and he was just a contractual employee. He further could not dispute the fact that applicant has already retired from service on 31.01.2025. 9. He further could not dispute the fact that recovery memo and other documents have not been prepared at spot rather these documents were prepared at police station. He further could not dispute the fact that applicant is not having any criminal history and he is in jail in the present matter for last almost six months. 10. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record of the case. 11. However, applicant was posted as Junior Clerk in the office of Child Development Project Office and as per allegation, he made demand of bribe of Rs. 5,000/- from the complainant to release the incentives of his wife and thereafter he was apprehended red handed by the trap-team while he was receiving bribe from the complainant but it reflects, applicant was not the government servant and he was just a contractual employee. 12. Further, record also suggests that recovery memo and other documents have not been prepared at spot rather these documents were prepared at police station. Considering this fact, the argument advanced by learned counsel for the applicant that this fact casts serious doubt on the entire trap proceedings, cannot be completely ruled out. 13. Further, applicant has already retired from service on 31.01.2025. 14. Further, applicant is not having any criminal history and he is in jail in the present matter since 21.01.2025 i.e. for last almost six months. 15. Further, law is settled, unless proven guilty, an accused is deemed to be innocent and bail application of an accused should not be dismissed for punitive purpose. 16. Therefore, considering the facts and circumstances of the case discussed above, in my view applicant is entitled to be released on bail. 17. Accordingly, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, the instant bail application is allowed. 18. Let the applicant- Rampher Pandey be released on bail in the aforesaid case on furnishing a personal bond and two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned with the following conditions:- (i) The applicant shall appear before the trial court on the dates fixed, unless his personal presence is exempted. (ii) The applicant shall not directly or indirectly, make inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the Court or any police officer or tamper with the evidence. (iii) The applicant shall not indulge in any criminal and anti-social activity. 19. In case of breach of any of the above condition, the prosecution will be at liberty to move an application before this Court for cancellation of the bail of the applicant. 20. It is clarified that the observations made herein are limited to the facts brought in by the parties pertaining to the disposal of bail application and the said observations shall have no bearing on the merits of the case during trial. Order Date :- 10.7.2025 KK Patel Digitally signed by :- KRISHN KANT PATEL High Court of Judicature at Allahabad