A Bank of Baroda manager has been sentenced to three years imprisonment for taking bribe in exchange for releasing sanctioned loan amount by a Delhi court, which said that his conduct had undermined the faith of common man in such public sector institutions.
Special CBI Judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma found 55-year-old Rajender Kumar Gupta, who was then working as branch manager of the bank, of taking illegal gratification and criminal misconduct by public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him.
"The prosecution has been able to establish that accused Rajender Kumar Gupta had demanded and received bribe from the complainant. I consider that it is a fit case where presumption under section 20 (presumption where public servant accepts gratification other than legal remuneration) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) can also be raised and, therefore, the accused is held guilty of the offence.
"Taking into account the health of the convict and other surrounding circumstances, convict Rajender Kumar Gupta is sentenced to simple imprisonment for three years...," the court said.
Gupta, however, was released on bail on furnishing a bond of Rs 20,000 and a surety of like amount for filing an appeal against his conviction and sentence before a superior court.
The court, while sentencing Gupta, observed that, "the common man of this country is suffering from pain and heat caused on account of rising corruption in the society. Particularly, corruption by a senior bank official is a matter of concern, as the common man of this country poses great faith in the public sector banks.
"The banks are the pivot of the entire economy of this country and the corruption in such sector would strike at the root of the things," it said.
A case was registered by CBI on January 1, 2009 on a complaint by Yogesh Talan, Managing Director of Startech Enggcon Pvt Ltd, from whom Gupta had demanded bribe for releasing the sanctioned amount of loan.
CBI in its charge sheet had said that SME Loan Factory of Bank of Baroda had sanctioned the bank guarantee (BG) limit of Rs 2.27 crore in favour of Startech Enggcon Pvt Ltd which was to be released by the Bank's District Centre branch here.
