A Delhi Police sub-inspector has been sentenced to three years imprisonment by a court here for demanding Rs one lakh bribe from a businessman to keep him out of an inquiry in a false murder case.
"Corruption is totally intolerable in public service and does not deserve any sympathy or leniency," Special CBI Judge Rajiv Mehra said while sentencing Ajay Bali, a Sub Inspector Delhi Police, to three years in jail while awarding one year jail imprisonment to co-accused Arun Sharma who had collected money on his behalf.
While holding Bali guilty, the court said, "he was a young officer of a disciplined force. It is unfortunate that at the initial years of his bright career he has been found involved in such like activities of corruption forcing the public for whose services the force is meant for, to spill out the bribe amount by keeping them under threat to falsely implicate in a criminal case."
In 2005, Bali was posted as a sub-inspector at a police station in East Delhi. He had made an illegal demand of Rs one lakh from businessman Rajesh Arora, who was running a furniture showroom to keep him out from the inquiry of a murder case, according to CBI.
Bali had also demanded a sofa towards part of the bribe amount and the same was delivered at his residence.
Arora made a complaint with the CBI which laid a trap and went to the furniture store where Bali had sent co-accused Sharma to collect the remaining 70,000 payment.
When another CBI team reached the police station to arrest Bali, he was found absconding and remained so for more than one and a half month after the incident.
In his defence, Bali submitted that he has been implicated in the case at the behest of a CBI inspector who he had refused to oblige in a criminal matter against his relative.
The court denied his plea for leniency saying, "This kind of conduct only erodes the public faith in the police force. The bribe amount is not small nor is his role and allegations in the crime. It should be paramountly borne in mind that corruption is totally intolerable in public service and does not deserve any sympathy or leniency."
A fine of Rs 50,000 was also slapped on the cop.
