Two suspended sales tax officials were today sentenced to three years in jail for taking bribe of Rs 5,000 for issuing Tax Identification Number to a firm by a court here which observed that corruption undermines human rights and there is "no scope" for lenient view in such cases.
Special CBI Judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma sent Mohar Singh, who has retired as VAT Inspector and Chandra Prakash Kataria, Assistant Sales Tax Officer here, to jail after holding them guilty of criminal conspiracy under IPC and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the 2006 case.
"Corruption in public life in this country has become a serious problem and particularly the tendency of public servants demanding the bribe has become a curse for the society. Corruption in the real terms undermines human rights, indirectly violating the same.
"The corruption, in any form and at any level is infancy a systematic economic crime. If this country has to progress corruption has to be dealt with a tough hand and this court is of the firm view that in corruption cases, there is no scope for having lenient view," the court said.
It also imposed a cost of Rs 1.25 lakh on convict Kataria and Rs 60,000 on Singh. The court, however, granted bail to the duo.
The CBI had lodged the case against the two officials after the complainant Dalip Kumar had informed them in August 2006 that the duo had demanded Rs 5,000 from him to issue the TIN for his shop in the name of M/s Balaji Medicare.
Accordingly, the CBI team lead a trap and arrested them while they were accepting the bribe money.
