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3. The brief facts of the prosecution case would be as follows:- The Government of Tamil Nadu in G.O.Ms.1080, Home [Police-III] Department dated 08.09.2004 directed the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board [in short, "the TNUSRB"] to recruit 1997 Grade-II Police Constables. Based on the same, the TNUSRB issued a notification calling for applications from eligible aspirants. After the receipt of the applications, physical measurements, endurance test and physical efficiency test were conducted between 21.02.2005 and 07.03.2005. The qualified candidates were called for written test which was held on 27.03.2005. After the examination was over, it was suspected that there had been leakage of question paper relating to general knowledge. Therefore, the Government in its letter No.SC/2062/2005 dated 26.04.2005 ordered for a re-test in General Knowledge. Accordingly, the re-test was conducted on 01.06.2005. It came to light that there was again leakage of question of paper relating to General Knowledge examination held on 01.06.2005 also. Therefore, the examination held on 01.06.2005 was again cancelled.

4. In those circumstances, the Government ordered an enquiry into the leakage of question papers pertaining to the examinations held on 27.03.2005 as well as on 01.06.2005. One Mr.P.Thamaraikannan, IPS, the then Deputy Commissioner of Police, Saint Thomas Mount held enquiry and he sent a report to the Director General of Police on 25.07.2005. According to his report, there was leakage of question papers in respect of both the examinations held on 27.03.2005 and 01.06.2005.

5. The report further revealed that the leakage of question paper on 27.03.2005 was through two clearly identified sources. One source of leakage was two police constables [PC 1025 Durai Munusamy of TNUSRB (A1) and PC 571 Chinna Thambi of Dharmapuri Armed Reserve (A2)] who was also serving in the TNUSRB. The report further alleged that on 23/24.03.2005 around 2.00 a.m. they scaled over the wall of TNUSRB office from the rear side entry into the chamber of the Director General of Police / Chairman, TNUSRB and had stolen away the question papers pertaining to the general knowledge examination and psychology. The question papers were thereafter leaked out by Durai Munusamy and Chinna Thambi to 21 candidates and 22 police constables.

6. According to the report, the 2nd source of the leakage was Mr.T.Radhakrishnan, IPS, the Inspector General of Police, who was holding Additional Charge of post of Inspector General of Police and Member Secretary, TNUSRB. The report further revealed that he gave the question paper to a retired Head Constable Jani Basha [A16] through whom Mr.T.Radhakrishnan, IPS gave question paper to another person also. Mr.Jani Basha passed on the said question paper to three police constables who in turn handed over the same to 9 candidates.

After the above charges were framed, the petitioners have come up with these petitions seeking to quash the charges framed against them. That is how, the petitioners are, now, before this Court with these petitions.

10. Before going into the rival contentions, let me reproduce the statement relating to the charges framed against all the accused:-

FIRSTLY, that you A-1 J.Duraimunusamy, PC 1025, A2 S.Chinnathambi, PC 571, A3 S.Anbalagan, PC 20178, A-4 N.Ravichandran, PC 24030 (PC 1400 in TSP), A-5 A.Karrupusamy, HC 2403, A6 S.Devanath, then PC 20207 HC 3488, A7 R.Manibalan, PC 21181, A-8 S.Meena, Candidate, A-9 M.Elamathi, Candidate, A-10 N.Elangovan, Candidate, A12 - G.Thirumuthu Vallideivanai, candidate, A-13 D.Balaji, PC 18430, A-14 A.Gopalakrishnan, PC 6266, A-15 A.Jeyamani, HC- 1389, A-16 Y.Jani Basha, Retd. HC, A-17 B.Udhaya Kumar, HC 1396, A-18 S.A.Sekhar, HC 23875, A-19 S.Parthiban, PC-3510, A-20 S.Sathish, Candidate, A-21 S.Gurumoorthy, PC 17147, A-22 C.Pushparaj, PC 18505, A23 E.Kannan, Candidate, A-24 K.Mathivanan, Candidate, A-25 K.Kuttiraj, Candidate, A-26 M.Devika, Candidate D/o Munusamy, A-28 R.Anbalagan, HC-444, PEW, Tiruvallur, A-29 R.Muthukumarasamy, HC-811, Q Branch, Tirunelveli, A-30 N.Anandan, PC-23432, Tirumullaivoil PS and A-31 C.Ramamurthy (private person), deceased accused A11 and A27, deceased Jeevaratinam, Head Constable and S.Raja (approver), Kaleeswaran (approver), S.Mohan (approver), K.Sivaraj (approver) D.Alamelu (approver) C.Senthil (approver), V.Rajasekar (approver), P.Sudhakar (approver), Arunkumar (approver), during the year 2005, entered into a criminal conspiracy at Chennai and other places of Tamilnadu to cheat Tamilnadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) in the matter of obtaining Question paper fraudulently in advance for the PC Examination held on 27.03.2005 and re-examination held on 1.6.2005 and in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, that you J.Durai Munusamy (A1) and you Chinnathambi (A2), while working in TNUSRB, Chennai on deputation, by abusing your official position, fraudulently and dishonestly obtained Question papers viz. General Knowledge and Psychology for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables in advance for the exam held on 27.3.2005, that you J.Durai Munusamy (A1), in furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, abused your official position and handed over copy of the Question papers for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables in advance to your relative Ms.S.Meena (A8) at Madurai. In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, knowing fully well that the Question paper given to her by you J.Durai Munusamy (A1) was fraudulently obtained, you Ms.S.Meena (A8) received the same, used the said Question paper and scored high marks in the exam held on 27.3.2005. Further, in pursuance of the criminal conspiracy, you J.Duraimunusamy (A1) also distributed the question papers to your friend A.Gopalakrishnan (A14) at Madurai whose fiancee Ms.G.Thirumuthu Vallideivanani (A12) was appearing for the exam from Madurai. In addition, you J.Duraimunusamy (A1) also parted with a copy of the question papers to your friend Anbu @ S.Anbalagan (A3), that you A.Gopalakrishnan (A14), by abusing your official position and fraudulently obtained the Question papers for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables in advance from your friend J.Duraimunusamy (A1), handed over the same to his fiancee Ms.G.Thirumuthu Vallideivanai (A12) and you Ms.G.Thirumuthu Vallideivanai (A12), in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, in spite of knowing fully well that the question papers given to you by A.Gopalakrishnan (A14) was fraudulently obtained, received and used the same and scored high marks in the exam. In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy you A.Gopalakrishnan (A14) by abusing your official position parted copy of Question papers for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables in advance to your friend A.Jeyamani, HC (A15). Further, you A2 handed over the copy of the said Question paper to your relative M.Elamathi (A9) at Dharmapuri and you Ms.M.Elamathi (A9), in pursuance of conspiracy, knowing fully well that the Question papers given by S.Chinnathambi (A2) was fraudulently obtained, received the same and used the said Question paper and scored high marks in the said exam. In pursuance of conspiracy, you S.Anbalagan, PC 20178 (A3) fraudulently obtained the Question papers for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables in advance for the exam held on 27.3.2005 from J.Duraimunusamy (A1), by abusing your official position, distributed the same to your friend N.Ravichandran (A4) and in pursuance of conspiracy, you N.Ravichandran (A4) by abusing your official position and knowing fully well that the question paper given by S.Anbalagan (A3) was obtained in a fraudulent manner, received the same and distributed it to candidates S.Mohan (Approver, K.Sivaraj (Approver), B.Nagamani (A11-deceased accused) and D.Alamelu (Approver) and received Rs.20,000/- each from them as consideration. Further, you N.Ravichandran (A4) also parted with the copy of Question papers to your friends A.Karuppasamy (A5) and S.Devanath (A6). In pursuance of conspiracy, B.Nagamani (A11-deceased accused) knowing fully well that the Question paper given to him by N.Ravichandran (A4) was fraudulently obtained, received the same and used the said Question paper and scored high marks in the exam held on 27.3.2005. In pursuance of conspiracy, you A.Karuppasamy (A5) by abusing your official position and knowing fully well that the Question paper obtained by you from N.Ravichandran (A4) was obtained in a fraudulent manner, dictated the Question paper over phone to R.Kaleeswaran, (Approver) a candidate for consideration. In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, R.Kaleeswaran (Approver) knowing well that the Question papers dictated by A.Karuppasamy (A5) obtained in a fraudulent manner, received and used the same and scored high marks in the Examination for the recruitment for the post of Grade.II Police Constables. In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, you S.Devanath (A6), by abused your official position and obtained the question paper fraudulently from N.Ravichandran (A4), conspired with your friend R.Manibalan (A7) and in pursuance of the said conspiracy, you abused your official position and passed on the Question paper to candidates S.Raja (Approver) and N.Elangovan (A10) through V.Santhosh Kumar and C.Ramamurthy (A31) respectively for monetary consideration and obtained Rs.60,000/- each from them. In pursuance of the conspiracy, S.Raja (Approver) obtained the question paper in advance fraudulently from S.Devanath (A6) and R.Manibalan (A7) for getting good marks. In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, you C.Ramamurthy (A31) knowing fully well that the question paper given to you by S.Devanath (A6) and R.Manibalan (A7) was obtained fraudulently, received the same and passed it on to your nephew N.Elangovan (A10). In pursuance of the conspiracy, you N.Elangovan (A10) knowing fully well that the question paper given to you by S.Devanath (A6) and R.Manibalan (A7) through your uncle C.Ramamurthy (A31) was obtained fraudulently, received and used the same for scoring high marks in the exams, In pursuance of the conspiracy, you A.Jeyamani (A15) fraudulently obtained the Question papers for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables in advance from A.Gopalakrishnan (A14) at Madurai, conspired with your friend R.Muthukumarasamy (A29) and in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy passed on the same to Murugesan S/o Raju, a Retired Head Constable, for consideration and obtained Rs.9,000/-. In pursuance of the conspiracy, you Y.Jani Basha (A16), entered into a criminal conspiracy with B.Udayakumar (A17) and S.A.Sekar (A18) and in furtherance of the same, you fraudulently obtained the Question papers for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables in advance held on 27.3.2005 and subsequently along with B.Udayakumar (A17) and S.A.Sekar (A18), passed on the Question papers to C.Senthil (Approver), S.Satish (A20), V.Rajasekar (Approver) and P.Sudhakar (Approver) after obtaining consideration of Rs.50,000/-, Rs.80,000/-, Rs.80,000/- and Rs.80,000/- respectively from them and part of the said money was also deposited in the SB account of B.Udayakumar (A17). In furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, you S.Sathish (A20) knowing fully well that the Question paper given by Y.Jani Basha (A16), B.Udayakumar (A17) and S.A.Sekar (A18), was obtained in a fraudulent manner, received the same and used it for scoring high marks in the exam. In pursuance of the conspiracy, Senthil (Approver), V.Rajasekar (Approver) and P.Sudhakar (Approver) knowing fully well that the Question paper given by Y.Jani Basha (A16), B.Udayakumar (A17) and S.A.Sekar (A18), was obtained in a fraudulent manner, received the same and used it for scoring high marks in the exam. That K.Elumalai (A27-deceased accused) who working as Head Constable -23917 in Stores Department of DGP's office, Chennai, in pursuance of the conspiracy with you R.Anbalagan (A28), to cheat TNUSRB in fraudulently obtaining the Question papers for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables in advance and in furtherance of the same, K.Elumalai (A27  deceased accused) an you R.Anbalagan (A28) fraudulently obtained the Question paper for the written exam for recruitment of Grade.II Police Constables, abused their official position as public servants and K.Elumalai (A27- deceased accused) passed on the Question paper to D.Murali and R.Manimaran. In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, K.Elumalai (A27-deceased accused) along with you R.Anbalagan (A28) also distributed the Question paper to N.Sivakumar for consideration.