Central goverment accounts officer gets three years’ jail for taking bribe
8 Nov 2012 3:45 AM IST
A central government accounts officer has been sentenced to three years in jail by a Delhi court for taking bribe from a transport service firm for clearing its bill for the buses hired from it.
Special CBI Judge Ravinder Kaur sentenced Assistant Accounts Officer Jay Prakash Singh of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Navy) office, saying ‘the corruption at any level by any person of any magnitude cannot be ignored’.
‘It is pertinent to mention here that the person in the net of the law and held guilty may not be a first-time corrupt. Such persons may have been indulging in corrupt activities for a number of years, but not caught earlier,’ the court said and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on him.
The case dates back to 31 August 2007, when manager Ramesh Kumar of Balaji Services lodged a complaint with the CBI alleging that Singh had been demanding from him a bribe of Rs 9,000 for giving him the cheque against payment for hiring buses from the firm, engaged with the Navy on contract basis.
He also alleged that on 30 August 2007, when he met the accused in the office of Controller of Defence Accounts (CDA) in Delhi, and requested him to prepare the bill for the amount of Rs 4 lakh for the month of May and June 2007, Singh demanded Rs 9,000 as commission for clearing the current and the previous months’ bills.
The CBI had said its team had caught Singh red handed, while Kumar was paying him the bribe.
During the trial Singh’s counsel had contended that his client was falsely implicated.
The court had convicted Singh for various offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, saying the CBI has been able to establish that he had demanded and accepted the bribe.
Singh’s counsel had sought lenient sentence, saying he has two unmarried daughters of marriageable age and one of them was getting engaged on 11 November while the marriage has been fixed for 9 December.
The counsel had also sought leniency on the ground that Singh might lose his job if sent to jail.
The court, however, rejected the plea saying, ‘I am of the opinion that the likelihood of Singh loosing his job cannot be a mitigating circumstance for purpose of awarding punishment.’
The court, however, suspended his sentence to enable him challenge his conviction and sentence in high court.
Special CBI Judge Ravinder Kaur sentenced Assistant Accounts Officer Jay Prakash Singh of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Navy) office, saying ‘the corruption at any level by any person of any magnitude cannot be ignored’.
‘It is pertinent to mention here that the person in the net of the law and held guilty may not be a first-time corrupt. Such persons may have been indulging in corrupt activities for a number of years, but not caught earlier,’ the court said and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on him.
The case dates back to 31 August 2007, when manager Ramesh Kumar of Balaji Services lodged a complaint with the CBI alleging that Singh had been demanding from him a bribe of Rs 9,000 for giving him the cheque against payment for hiring buses from the firm, engaged with the Navy on contract basis.
He also alleged that on 30 August 2007, when he met the accused in the office of Controller of Defence Accounts (CDA) in Delhi, and requested him to prepare the bill for the amount of Rs 4 lakh for the month of May and June 2007, Singh demanded Rs 9,000 as commission for clearing the current and the previous months’ bills.
The CBI had said its team had caught Singh red handed, while Kumar was paying him the bribe.
During the trial Singh’s counsel had contended that his client was falsely implicated.
The court had convicted Singh for various offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, saying the CBI has been able to establish that he had demanded and accepted the bribe.
Singh’s counsel had sought lenient sentence, saying he has two unmarried daughters of marriageable age and one of them was getting engaged on 11 November while the marriage has been fixed for 9 December.
The counsel had also sought leniency on the ground that Singh might lose his job if sent to jail.
The court, however, rejected the plea saying, ‘I am of the opinion that the likelihood of Singh loosing his job cannot be a mitigating circumstance for purpose of awarding punishment.’
The court, however, suspended his sentence to enable him challenge his conviction and sentence in high court.
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