Chandigarh: Punjab transport dept staffer given four years sentence in 2017 graft case
The CBI court of special judge Alka Malik on Wednesday sentenced a 66-year-old former senior assistant in the office of state transport commissioner to four years imprisonment in a 2017 corruption case. The second accused–Damandeep Singh, 28– , who worked as a daily wager with the department, was also sentenced to four years of imprisonment.
The duo was convicted last week after they were found guilty under the charges of Sections 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 7 and 13 (1)(d) (ii) punishable under Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The CBI had registered the case on May 5, 2017, on the complaint of Kamal Kumar.
The complainant told the police that he visited the Punjab government’s transport office in Sector 17 for the issuance of a registration certificate and All India Permit for his Honda Amaze car where he met the accused who told him that the total fee for his work would be ₹16,000 and also said that a penalty of ₹50 per day as the late fee is payable by him, thus, taking the payable total to ₹19,300. The complainant added that after enquiring he came to know that the actual fee was ₹9,500.
On receiving the complaint, the CBI laid a trap and caught the accused red-handed while accepting the bribe money.
What the CBI told the court
The CBI public prosecutor told the court that the manner in which convicts in conspiracy with each other misused their official position while demanding and accepting the bribe under the guise of payment of fee as well as penalty for issuance of the registration certificate and All India Route Permit, shows that they deserve to be punished severely to deter such as like-minded persons in the society.
What court said
While passing the verdict, the court said that the facts of the instant case and the manner in which convicts had very clandestinely demanded and accepted the bribe from the complainant under the guise of taking fee and penalty for Registration Certificate and All India Route Permit, goes to establish their intention.
“It shall be absolutely relevant to mention here that corruption by public servants has reached such a monstrous stage that the institutions which have been created for the purpose of serving the public are thwarting the very purpose of the same. Such behaviour of corrupt public servants is in-fact paralysing the functioning of the public institutions, thereby hindering the very democratic polity of the state,” said Malik while passing the order.
The court added that the convicts, a public servant as well as a private person, have indulged in corrupt practices in conspiracy with each other and have raised the unethical demand of bribe from the complainant and accepted the same despite full knowledge and consequences of the act, in which they had indulged.
Therefore, they deserve to be punished to deter such like-minded people in the society to curb the menace of corruption.
