A special CBI court today sentenced a regional passport official and a travel agent to three years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2004 case of collecting passport applications without proper documentation.
The II Additional Special Judge for CBI cases, M V Ramesh, also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convicts-- Upper Division Clerk (UDC) K Ramesh Kumar at the Regional Passport Office in Secunderabad and a travel agent M Krishna-- under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI Anti-Corruption Branch had registered a case against Ramesh Kumar and Krishna on the allegation that the former was collecting passport applications without proper documentation from Krishna, an unregistered travel agent and getting the same submitted for a commission of Rs 300 per application.
The duo was caught red-handed by a team of CBI officers on September 29, 2004 and a large number of passport application and huge amount of cash was recovered from them, a CBI release said.
