Bribery Case: High Court upholds Tax Officer’s conviction

The Karnataka High Court has upheld the conviction & sentencing of a commercial tax officer (CTO) who was caught with a bribe of Rs 5 lakh in Dec 2008.

Justice V Shrishananda, while dismissing the plea filed by one Padmanabha, observed that the commercial tax office is considered one of the hubs of corruption & poor & gullible drivers fall prey to illegal demands every day.

“Only when the greed is too high do some cases reach the higher-ups or Lokayukta. Very few result in filing of case & arrival at a logical end,” he said. He directed Padmanabha to surrender before the trial court on or before March 15 to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Case history

Padmanabha was caught after he received a bribe of Rs 5 lakh in Rs 500 & Rs 1,000 notes smeared with phenolphthalein powder by the Lokayukta police. The complaint was registered by the project manager of a steel company, alleging that when equipment worth Rs 40 lakh was being transported from Raipur to Koppal, officials posted at Dhulked check-post in Vijayapura district demanded Rs 15 lakh for releasing the lorry. Eventually, a sum of Rs 5 lakh was arrived at.

On April 6, 2015, a special court for Lokayukta cases in Vijayapura held Padmanabha guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Under section 7, he was awarded 2.5 years of simple imprisonment & Rs 1 lakh fine. Under section 13(1)(d), he was sentenced to four years of simple imprisonment with Rs 1.5 lakh fine. Both sentences would run concurrently. In his appeal, Padmanabha claimed Ananthanarayana, who was in charge of the check-post, and Dalwai were initially named as accused in the FIR, but Lokayukta police dropped their names & the charge-sheet came to be filed only against him when he had “no role in intercepting the lorry”.

But Lokayukta police defended the trial court’s verdict & claimed the acceptance of huge amounts of money by Padmanabha presupposes demand.

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