Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 12: Special Judge CBI Bala Joyti today awarded five years rigorous imprisonment to B Mittal, Executive Engineer of Northern Railway in corruption case.
As per the prosecution case, on the basis of a written complaint dated 15.07.2009 filed by one Rajiv Jasrotia, who happens to be a Railway Contractor, a case was registered under Section 161 RPC and 5(1) (d) read with Section 5(2) of J&K Prevention of Corruption Act against accused B B Mittal, Executive Engineer, Northern Railway, Jammu for demanding bribe from the contractor for release of his security amount.
After hearing Manmohan Sharma, Special PP for the CBI whereas Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi with Advocate Vaibhav Gupta for the accused, the court observed, “the corruption by public servants has become a huge problem. It has spread everywhere. No facet of public activity has been left unaffected by the stink of corruption. It has deep and pervasive impact on the functioning of the entire Government machinery. Large scale corruption retards the national building activities and everyone has to suffer on that count as well”.
“This court is of the view that strict adherence to the Prevention of Corruption Act is essential for safeguarding the interest of the society and for achieving the object of the Prevention of Corruption Act which is to eradicate the corruption from the society. A stringent law has no meaning if the offenders would go away with lenient punishments”, the Special Judge said, adding “undue sympathy as asked for to impose inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system to undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law. It is the duty of every court to award proper sentence having regard to the nature of the crime and the manner in which it was committed”.
“The convict was found demanding and accepting bribe to the tune of Rs 10,000 from complainant Rajiv Jasrotia as motive for release of his security amount of Rs 7.5 lakh. I carefully perused provisions of Section 161 RPC which prescribes punishment to a public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act”, the Special Judge said, adding “it is apt to note that the accused in fact is caught for the first time for such type of offences. He faced the trial for last more than 13 years. This court hopes that during this long period of more than13 years, when he has faced consequences of his proved misconduct, he may have, by now a sense of remorse for what he did”.
“More so, he has a family to run, which in fact will consequently suffer if maximum punishment provided in the statute is awarded to him. As such, taking into consideration, gravity of offence and overall facts and circumstances the accused person is sentenced under Section 161 RPC for which he will undergo rigorous imprisonment of three years along with fine of Rs 5000 and in default of payment of fine he shall further undergo simple imprisonment for six months”, the court said.
“He is also convicted under Section 5(1)(d) read with Section 5(2) of J&K PC Act and he will under rigorous imprisonment of five years along with fine of Rs. 5000 and in default of payment of fine he shall further undergo simple imprisonment for six months. Both the sentences shall run concurrently”, the court said.
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