Two yrs imprisonment awarded to JE electrical
Three consecutive convictions in trap cases in 5 months
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 6: Special Judge Anti-corruption Court Jammu Tahir Khurshid Raina today stressed the need to devise effective, innovative and impactful strategies for complete annihilation of menace of corruption in order to give meaning to lofty mandate of “Rule of Law” as enshrined in the Constitution.
The thrust was laid by the Special Judge while awarding two years imprisonment and imposing fine of Rs 20,000 on Junior Engineer Electrical in a trap case. This was third consecutive conviction in trap cases within a span of five months and testimony to the fact that corruption exists in the ranks and files of our officialdom and inspite of having laws and system in place to check it, its rise and spread did not get curbed at the desired level.
“This court earlier also through its judgments and orders, conveyed its serious concern about burgeoning corruption and its lethal impact on the society. However, once again this court seizes this opportunity to convey its concern to the people at helm to devise effective, innovative and impactful strategies for complete annihilation of the same to give meaning to the lofty mandate of Rule of Law as enshrined in the Constitution as this will be greatest service to the society and the nation”, the Special Judge Anti-Corruption remarked.
The court while awarding sentence to Junior Engineer Electrical Ved Parkash of Parihote Doda observed, “the case in hand is based on a trap laid by the Vigilance Organization, Jammu, (now ACB), whereby it is alleged to have caught the accused red handed, who was Meter Reader cum I/C Junior Engineer, Electrical, on the day when he is alleged to have demanded Rs 20,000 from the complainant for processing his case for getting power connection to run flour mill in village Kanhal, Bishnah”.
“The deal between the complainant and the accused, as alleged, was struck for Rs 20,000 as bribe amount, out of which, complainant had to pay Rs 5000 as a first installment to the accused. Same he paid on the day and date settled between the two, which is the alleged day of occurrence i.e, 14-10-2017”, the court observed.
After hearing APP Irshad Ahmad Sheikh for the ACB, the court further observed, “the FIR in the case got registered in the year 2017 and the charge-sheet is filed in this court in the year 2018. In totality, the convict is facing the accusation for the last 6 years. The investigation agency, since the date of occurrence, took one year in filing the charge-sheet in the court, which was quite unwarranted in such like cases where the investigation substantially completes on the spot itself, except of some formalities to be completed in the follow-up”.
“However, there is no such impression before the court that the convict in any way was responsible for delaying the investigation. Similarly, in my humble opinion, the ideal time limit for deciding such cases, based on a trap is 6 months, but this court took around five long years to culminate the same”, Special Judge said, adding “I do not find any reason to be attributed to any conduct of the convict on account of which the delay of five years has happened in deciding the case. Rather the blame shifts to the prosecution which is delayed in producing the witnesses before the court. So the conduct of the convict, either during the course of investigation or trial is not blameworthy, a factor which I consider to influence the award of sentence to the convict”.
“Apart, there is no past history of the convict brought before the court by the prosecution as being infamous for such misconduct in the department. He, in fact, is caught for the first time for such type of offences. This court hopes that during this long period of six years, when he has faced consequences of his proved misconduct, he may have now a sense of remorse for what he did”, Special Judge said, adding “more so, he may have a family to run, which, in fact, will suffer if maximum punishment provided in the statute is awarded to him”.
Accordingly, accused was awarded one year’s simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs 10,000 for commission of offence under Section 4-A of PC Act and one year’s simple imprisonment with a fine of said Rs 10,000 for commission of offence under Section 5(2) of the Act. Both the sentences run concurrently. In case of non-payment of fine, the convict shall further undergo simple imprisonment for a period of three months.
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