Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 23
While Dr. Sushil Kumar Garg, special judge at the CBI Court, says corrupt people are like termites eating up the roots of the nation’s social and fiscal tree, he awarded a four year prison sentence (RI) to the former superintendent of the Model Jail, Burail, in a seven year old bribery case. The court fined the convict 50,000 rupees.
The court had previously found the defendant guilty of having committed offenses under sections 7 and 13 (1) letter D in conjunction with 13 (2) of the 1988 Corruption Prevention Act. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested former Head Guard Sarwan Kumar in July 2014 while allegedly taking bribes of 5,000 rupees from a convict, Sandeep Kumar.
The CBI filed an indictment against the head guard in October 2014. According to the indictment, in the last week of June 2014, the defendant asked for a bribe in the form of a water purifier or 5,000 rupees from an inmate, Sandeep Kumar instead of changing his duty from the visitor room and assigning him an easier job. Sandeep was housed in a barrack with co-defendant Prem Singh Bisht.
When Prem Singh Bisht was paroled on July 9, 2014, he told his brother, Pratap Singh Bisht, that Sarwan had sought bribes from Sandeep.
Pratap contacted the CBI, which registered a case against the accused. Sandeep gave Pratap’s cell phone number to the head guard and said he was his brother. He asked Sarwan to contact him for money or the water purifier.
When the defendant called Pratap, he alerted the CBI. It set a trap and caught the prison guard red-handed taking the bribe from Pratap across from a school in Sector 45, Chandigarh.
Public Prosecutor KP Singh spoke out in favor of punishing the accused in an exemplary manner. Singh said a lenient stance on such matters would send the wrong message to the undesirable elements in society.
After hearing the argument, the CBI court stated that persons of the convict were termites responsible for engulfing the roots of the nation’s social and fiscal tree, thereby ripping the nation of the fruits of that tree. The court said that given that the defendant’s conduct was highly deplorable, the defendant deserved no indulgence.
