Dharnidhar Jha, J. - (1.)THE present batch of four appeals arises out of an order passed by the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge-cum-Authorised Officer, Patna, on 17.3.2011 under Section 15 of the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009, in connection with Special Case No. 3 of 2010 arising out of Special Vigilance Unit Case No. 2 of 2007 under Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 by which the learned Authorised Officer directed the assets belonging to appellant Shivashankar Verma worth Rs. 1,43,96,265/- be confiscated to the State of Bihar. It was further directed that appellant Shivashankar Verma surrender or deliver possession of the assets shown in paragraph 24 of Annexure- IV appearing at serial nos. 1 to 13 to the District Magistrate, Patna who was to take possession of all the movable and immovable assets within thirty days from the date of the service of the order, failing which the District Magistrate, Patna or the Authorised Officer was to take possession by taking all coercive steps in view of the provision contained in Section 18(2) of the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009.
(2.)THE two appellants of Cr. Appeal No. 507 of 2011, namely, Shivashankar Verma and Smt. Usha Verma, are spouses, Shivashankar Verma on the relevant date being the Secretary, Department of Minor Irrigation, Govt. of Bihar, Patna. THE appellant in Cr. Appeal No.546 of 2011 Dr. Upendra Prasad Singh has been held to be an abettor by attempting to conceal the property relating to Khata No. 2, Plot No. 96, Phulwari, Alipur. Appellant Ram Pal Verma alias Ram Pal (appellant in Cr. Appeal No. 550 of 2011) is the father of appellant Shivshankar Verma whereas appellants Shyam Lal Singh, Chandra Pal Singh and Krishna Pal Singh are the father-in-law and brothers-in-law of appellant Shivashankar Verma. Appellant No. 4 Smt.Suman Verma alias Suman Lata Verma is the sister of appellant Smt.Usha Verma, and they have equally been arrayed as persons who connived with the appellant Shivashankar Verma in concealing the assets earned by him which was disproportionate to his known sources of income in various ways, as may appear from the discussions likely to be made by me while considering the four appeals. Thus, what is admitted is that except appellant Dr. Upendra Prasad Singh, the solitary appellant in Cr. Appeal No.546 of 2011, all the appellants are related to each other either by blood or by marriage.
As appears from the statements of facts made by the learned lower court, i.e., the Authorised Officer, Special Vigilance Unit Case No.2 of 2007 was instituted on 3.7.2007 under Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act on the basis of reliable source of information that appellant Shivashankar Verma, Secretary, Minor Irrigation Department, Govt. of Bihar was in possession of assets disproportionate to the known source of his income worth Rs. 6,87,000/- in form of movable and immovable properties. While the case was being investigated into, huge properties amassed by appellant Shiva Shankar Verma was allegedly discovered which were quite disproportionate to the known sources of his income.

It was stated by the State of Bihar in its petition under Section 13 of the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009( Act? in short) that during search operations on 6.7.2007 in connection with the above noted case, cash of Rs. 1,64,990/- and 578 Dollars which were of the value of Rs. 24,854/-, were recovered and seized from the house of appellant Shiva Shankar Verma, that?s, House No.406, Saubhagya Sharma Patha, Rukanpura, Bailey Road, Patna-1. The above recoveries were made on 6.7.2007. Besides the above amount of cash in Indian and foreign currencies, other articles were also found there but they were not seized in spite of being shown in the inventory papered on the spot in presence of the family members of the appellant Shiva Shankar Verma. Those articles were found valued at Rs. 22,14,893/- as shown in Annexure 3 to the petition filed under Section 13 of the Act by the State of Bihar.

Appellant Shiva Shankar Verma was operating a bank locker bearing no. 289 in Allahabad Bank, Sheikhpura, Bailey Road, Patna and on search of the same it was found storing gold bar weighing 1 K.G., 800 guineas and gold ornaments, total value of which, as per the recognized Valuer, came to Rs. 80,78,596/-. In addition to the above quantity of gold and other gold articles, Rs. 2,58,000/- in cash was also recovered from the said locker.

The State of Bihar stated that appellant Shiva Shankar Verma, residing in House no. 406, Saubhagya Sharma Path, Rukanpura, Bailey Road, Patna-1, was the permanent resident of Village Garha, P.S. Nagram, Tehsil Mohanlal Ganj, District Lucknow (U.P.). His father appellant Ram Pal Verma @ Ram Pal was a farmer holding 5.5.hectares of land, the total income from which, as per the report of Tehsildar, Mohanlalganj was Rs. 50,000/- per annum and on computing the annual income from 1986 to 2007 the total income of appellant Ram Pal Verma came to Rs. 10,55,000/- from his agricultural operations over his agricultural land. It is not denied that appellant Ram Pal Verma alias Ram Pal was earlier married to Tulsa Devi who gave birth to appellant Shiva Shankar Verma and his sister Lajjawati Devi whereafter she demised. Appellant Ram Pal Verma, thereafter, married Tarabati Devi, the step mother of appellant Shiva Shankar Verma from whom appellant Ram Pal Verma begot three sons, namely, Narendra Kumar, Satyendra Kumar and Jitendra Kumar. Thus, appellant Shiva Shankar Verma had three brothers and one sister. Except appellant Shiva Shanakar Verma, who was in service, his remaining three brothers were unemployed and were dependent on the agricultural income of their family. In addition to 5.5. hectares land, appellant Ram Pal Verma had also in his possession 0.537 hectares of land at Village Garha and annual income, as reported by the Tehsildar, from that land was Rs. 16,000/- and on calculation of the above income from 1986 to 2007, he could also have an additional annual income of Rs. 3,45,000/-.

(3.)THE State of Bihar stated, which does not appear denied, that appellant Ram Pal Verma was originally resident of Village Sehajadpur and he was the son of late Ram Sevak Verma who had three other sons also. Ram Sevak Verma, the father of appellant Ram Pal Verma, had got property from his maternal side at Garha and that property was given to appellant Ram Pal Verma while the property which was located at Village Sehjadpur was shared by other three brothers of appellant Ram Pal Verma.
It was stated further that appellant Shyam Lal Singh who happens to be the father-in-law of appellant Shiva Shankar Verma, was a Gram Sevak in Rai Bareli (U.P) and he retired from service on 31.3.1998 and his pension was Rs. 2,612/- only in the year 2001. It has further been mentioned that Smt. Usha Verma, who is the wife of appellant Shiva Shankar Verma and daughter of appellant Shyam Lal Singh showed her income from shares of different companies and she had her holdings in different companies in her name which was still being investigated into. There was no dispute about the fact that appellant Smt. Usha Verma was the house wife and she did not have any independent personal income and was not in a position to invest or to purchase some shares or holdings in companies. It was found during the investigation that during the check period starting from 1.1.1986 to 31.5.2007, as per Annexure-2 to the petition under Section 13 of the Act, appellant Shiva Shankar Verma had spent Rs. 48,50,025.64 P. against his total income of Rs. 50,95,056.72P. After deducting from his total income, the amount spent by appellant Shiva Shankar Verma, his savings came to Rs. 2,45,031.08 Paise. Appellant Shiva Shankar Verma was found in possession of assets worth Rs. 2,17,02765.73P. as per Annexure 3 to the petition in his name or in the names of his family members and others and after deducting the above said amount of Rs. 2,45,031.08 Paise. the assets which were found disproportionate to his known sources of income which was possessed by appellant Shiva Shankar Verma was to the tune of Rs. 2,14,57,734.65Paise. The description of properties, both movable and immovable, found possessed disproportionately by appellant Shiva Shankar Verma to his known source of income was detailed in paragraph 24 of the petition filed under Section 13 of the Act and it was valued at Rs. 1,43,96 265/- which was prayed to be confiscated during the pendency of the trial of the Special Vigilance Unit Case No.2 of 2007.

As required by Section 14 of the Act, on receipt of the application made under Section 13 thereof, the Authorised Officer appointed under the Act issued notices to the appellants calling upon them to indicate the sources of their respective income, earnings or assets out of which or by means of which he or she had acquired such money or properties along with the evidence on which the appellants relied upon and to show cause as to why the properties which were alleged to be the properties acquired by appellant Shiva Shankar Verma by means of committing the offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act be not confiscated to the State Government. The appellants appeared before the Authorised Officer and filed their individual written statement of defence by way of show cause before Special Court No.2, Vigilance, Patna who was the Authorized Officer in the present case.