Delhi: Civic official gets four-year-jail for asking for Rs 50,000 to promote junior colleague

NEW DELHI: A senior official of North Delhi Municipal Corporation has been sentenced to four years’ jail for asking his junior to pay him Rs 50,000 as bribe for the position of licensing inspector. While pronouncing the verdict, a special CBI court said the accused was a government official who had indulged in corruption and justice demands a fitting punishment.
The complainant, Sunil Kumar, worked as a bill clerk with the north civic body, while the accused, Sanjeev Kumar, was an assistant commissioner.Sunil faced continuous harassment from Sanjeev, who kept pestering him for the Rs 50,000 bribe and even threatened to throw him out of the general branch where they worked.
Sunil reported the matter to CBI on May 2, 2016. CBI laid a trap and caught catch Sanjeev red-handed while accepting the bribe. When CBI officials confronted the accused, he was “mum and turned pale”. Sanjeev was charged with Section 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) and Section 13 1(d) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
During trial, the prosecution examined 16 witnesses, including officials of the civic body. The accused denied all charges against him and said that he had no authority to post the complainant as licensing inspector as the power rested with the deputy commissioner. In fact, Sanjeev argued that on April 22, 2016 the complainant had approached him and sought financial help citing his wife’s ill health for which he loaned Sunil Rs 25,000. Sanjeev’s counsel argued that mere recovery of tainted money was not sufficient to convict him.
From the records, it became clear to the court that an assistant commissioner had the authority to recommend change of allotment of duties of the person working under him. “This clearly shows that he had the authority to recommend the name and such process had to be initiated at his end and without his recommendation, the complainant couldn’t be appointed/transferred as licensing inspector,” special judge Anil Kumar Sisodia observed.