January 07,2019:

Delhi's Special CBI Court has sentenced Three men, including two civic officials, to a 10-year jail term for defrauding the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi 20 years ago of Rs 5.5 crore.

Court slapped a fine of Rs 1 crore on the three, stating that corruption “corrodes the spine of a nation” and eventually “makes its economy sterile”.

According to Court, the misappropriated amount, if estimated in current times, would have crossed over Rs 100 crore.

Two of the accused a cashier and an accountant with the Civic Body died during the trial.

Special CBI Judge Kiran Bansal stated that,“Corruption is an enemy of nation and tracking down corrupt public servants and punishing them is a necessary mandate. Every country feels a constant longing for good governance, righteous use of power and transparency in administration”.

It was alleged that cashier Mahinder Kumar Gupta dishonestly collected cheques from Accounts Department and deposited them in bogus accounts.

Other convicts executive engineer Ram Kishan, Assistant Chief Accountant Ram Swaroop Narang and Accountant Brij Lal issued fake demand notes and got them passed from the accounts department.

Between June 1998 and July 1999, Gupta was posted in the auto workshop of MCD. The prosecution claimed that during his tenure, he criminally conspired with his wife, son and other MCD officials to siphon off over Rs 5 crore public funds in bogus bank accounts.

While Surinder was awarded seven years jail time and Rs 27 lakh in fine, Kishan and Narang were awarded 10 years jail and slapped with Rs 37 lakh

Special CBI Judge concluded that,“Corruption at any level does not deserve any kind of sympathy or leniency,” the court said.

Source TOI

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