Court awards 2-yr jail to IASRI officer in graft case

An officer of the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by a special court for taking bribe for issuing a transfer order.
The court took a lenient view towards 55-year-old Krishan Pal Singh Gautam, who was posted as chief administrative officer in IASRI, considering family circumstances that he has to take care of an aged mother, ailing wife and unmarried children who are still in academic pursuits.
Special CBI Judge Kamini Lau held Gautam, a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, guilty of the offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to public servant taking illegal gratification and criminal misconduct by him. The court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on him.

The court allowed the convict's plea and suspended his sentence to enable him to file an appeal against this verdict in the superior court.
According to the CBI, a case was lodged against Gautam in November 2013, on a complaint of Mayank Singh Pundir, who was posted as an assistant at Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore.
The complainant had alleged that he applied for his transfer in IASRI in Delhi from Coimbatore and met Gautam, who demanded a bribe of Rs one lakh for issuing a transfer order.

A trap was laid by the probe agency and Gautam was caught accepting part payment of Rs 50,000 in his office from Pundir, the CBI alleged.

The convict, who had remained in judicial custody for over two months during the trial, sought leniency saying his family has immensely suffered on account of this case and has been financially ruined.
The prosecutor said the convict does not deserve any lenient view as he had misused his official position.