A DDA employee, caught while taking a bribe of Rs 8,000 for allowing unauthorised construction, has been sent to jail for four years by a Delhi court which said "undue leniency" in such cases was neither "desirable nor warranted".
The court sentenced 52-year-old Shashi Bhanu, working as a Junior Engineer (Enforcement Branch) in DDA at the time of the offence in 2008, and slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on him, saying the main objective of sentence in graft cases was deterrence and prevention of such crimes.
"Large range of public servants, starting from the lowest rung to the highest level, are covered under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Similarly, the range of corruption is also wide between petty bribes to corruption in thousands of crores by top rank public servants.
"... In the cases of corruption, the main objective of sentence is deterrence and prevention of such crimes by way of deterrence. Reformation theory of punishment has comparatively lesser applicability in such cases," special CBI judge Sanjeev Jain said.
Bhanu was held guilty of taking illegal gratification, criminal misconduct and misusing his official position under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.
The court, however, acquitted R K Sharma, a DDA employee, of the charges of conspiracy under the IPC and provisions of the PC Act due to lack of sufficient evidence.
According to CBI, a case was lodged against Bhanu and Sharma for demanding a bribe of Rs 8,000 from complainant K V I Krishnan for not issuing demolition notice and also to settle the matter of construction in his DDA flat in Bindapur.
