No undue leniency should be shown to corrupt government officials as because of the actions of some of them the general public has started seeing graft as a "fact and way of life", a Special CBI court here observed.
This observation was made by Special Judge Bhupesh Kumar while sentencing a 1991-batch IAS officer Sandeep Garg to four years of rigorous imprisonment along with 25 lakh fine after being convicted for amassing disproportionate assets to the tune of over Rs 3.18 crore.
The court convicted Garg, who was then Regional Director in Anti-adulteration cell in Petroleum Ministry, along with his father Swami Sharan Garg, brother Rajeev Garg and two friends Atul Jindal and Suman Sarin.
Dimissing the plea of leniency claimed by accused citing a Supreme Court order, Kumar said, "in the said judgment, the benefit has been given by the Supreme Court, inter alia, on two grounds, first considering the period of 17 years of trial and the fact that small amount of Rs 700 was involved."
He said in the matter, no doubt the convicts have faced the trial for about 12 years but huge disprportionate amount of Rs 3.18 crore is involved hence the findings of Supreme Court are not applicable to the peculiar circumstances of the present matter.
"Nowadays corruption is a deep rooted problem of the society which is one of the major hindrance in the development of the nation. It is anti-poor, anti-economic development and anti-nation. Due to the act of certain public servants, the society as a whole suffers because general public has started taking corruption as a fact and way of life," the judge said.
He said "no undue leniency should be given to corrupt public servants and they should be awarded the punishment to have deterrent effect on the other public servants.
The CBI, following a probe, said that the IAS officer had
acquired assets worth Rs 3.61 crore (approx) during a short period from January 1999 to April 2004.
According to the charge sheet, the assets included a plot in Haryana, four flats in Delhi and bonds and shares worth Rs 2.08 crore.
Also, expenditure of Rs 4.67 lakh was found to have been incurred by the accused as education expenses for his children as well as on other items.
It was found that the total income of the officer and his family members, during 1999-2004, was Rs 29.25 lakh only, but the accused amassed disproportionate assets worth Rs 3.36 crore during the period, the charge sheet said.
It was also found that the accused had acquired various movable and immovable assets in the name of his father, mother as well as a lady friend.
The accused officer had also created a private limited company with his father and brother as directors and laundered his illegal earnings by depositing cash amount of Rs 35 lakh in the name of this company as share capital and subsequently utilising the same to acquire immovable assets as well as incur expenditure on his extravagant life style.
Also the accused had tried to legitimate income through gifts from his father and mother which were in fact generated from his illegal earning, the CBI said.
"Further the prosecution has proved that convict Sandeep Garg was in possession of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 3.18 crore to his known source(s) of income. In view of the above findings, it is apparent that convict had acquired these assets from ill gotten means," the judge said.
Ordering to forfeit assets worth Rs 3.18 crore, judge Bhupesh Kumar said, "...Certain properties involved in this matter are in the name of other convicts also. Hence the convict Sandeep Garg as well as other convicts are directed not to dispose of the assets involved in this matter.
