DDA employee gets 4-year jail for taking Rs 8,000 bribe

NEW DELHI: Observing that "undue leniency" in corruption cases was neither "desirable nor warranted", a trial court has sentenced a DDA employee to four years in jail for taking a bribe of Rs 8,000 for allowing unauthorized construction.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Shashi Bhanu (52) saying the main objective of sentence in graft cases was deterrence and prevention of such crimes. Bhanu was working as a junior engineer in DDA's enforcement branch at the time of the offence in 2008.

"Large range of public servants, starting from the lowest rung to the highest level, are covered under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Similarly, the range of corruption is also wide from petty bribes to corruption in thousands of crores by top rank public servants.. In the cases of corruption, the main objective of sentence is deterrence and prevention of such crimes by way of deterrence. Reformation theory of punishment has comparatively lesser applicability in such cases," special CBI judge Sanjeev Jain said.

Bhanu was held guilty of taking illegal gratification, criminal misconduct and misusing his official position under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court, however, acquitted R K Sharma, a DDA employee, of the charges of conspiracy under the IPC and provisions of the PC Act due to lack of sufficient evidence.

According to CBI, a case was lodged against Bhanu and Sharma for demanding a bribe of Rs 8,000 from complainant K V I Krishnan for not issuing demolition notice and also to settle the matter of construction in his DDA flat in Bindapur, southwest Delhi.

The accused had also threatened the complainant that they would get demolition orders for the construction if he failed to pay them the bribe amount, CBI had said.

Krishnan had approached CBI, saying he was alloted the DDA flat in 1995 under expandable housing scheme and no separate sanction was required for construction of two-and-a-half floors. The DDA officials, however, demanded money for permitting him to continue with the construction of his house. When he did not pay the bribe, the officials served a showcause notice to him and thereafter, he filed a complaint in January, 2008 with CBI against the two accused. A trap was laid by CBI and Bhanu was caught while accepting Rs 8,000 from Krishnan.

Source of Info - Times of India.