Former judge gets 3 years' rigorous imprisonment in graft case

TNN Apr 29, 2012

NEW DELHI: A former trial court judge has been sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment for taking Rs 2,000 as bribe in a 26-year-old case. Saying a judge's ethical firmness is the need of the hour, special CBI judge V K Maheshwari held former judge Gulab Tulsiyani (74) guilty of demanding and accepting bribe for disposal of a factory challan case in 1986. Tulsiyani was a metropolitan magistrate at Patiala House court at that time.

"Judicial office is an office of public trust, therefore, high integrity, honesty and ethical firmness is the requirement of society from the judge. A judge's conduct is expected to be judged by standards higher than that expected from any other public servant. The confidence in judiciary is getting shattered day by day. Today judiciary is suffering from self-inflicted wounds... " the court said while imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 on Tulsiyani.

The court, however, suspended its sentence till May 28 after the convict expressed his wish to appeal against his conviction. While releasing him on interim bail on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with a surety of the same amount, it asked Tulsiyani to appear before it on May 29.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-29/delhi/31475962_1_trial-court-judge-patiala-house-court-rigorous-imprisonment

Ex-BJP chief gets 4 years in jail for ‘political graft’

Smriti Singh, TNN Apr 29, 2012

NEW DELHI: Former BJP chief Bangaru Laxman was on Saturday sentenced to four years' imprisonment for having accepted Rs 1 lakh as bribe from a fake arms dealer who sought his help to bag an order from the defence ministry. The trial court rejected his plea for leniency and said he was guilty of "political corruption, and had sought to compromise national security for selfish ends".

Special CBI judge Kanwaljeet Arora emphasized that Laxman headed the BJP, the largest constituent of the then NDA government at the Centre, when he accepted the bribe from a counterfeit company to push the sale of hand-held thermal imagers, a fictitious device.

Laxman, who was caught on camera in a sting operation accepting bribe 11 years ago, is the first president of a national party to have been jailed for corruption, something that can embarrass the BJP in its anti-graft campaign targeting the Congress.

The case assumes significance because the court rejected the argument that Laxman, the only dalit to have headed the BJP, was a victim of entrapment, saying while the methods of those who carried out the sting may have been objectionable, their purpose was not.

Rejecting the demand for leniency on grounds of age, health and "unblemished record of public life" of four decades, the special CBI judge said Laxman had agreed to compromise the security of the nation" for his personal interests.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-29/india/31475551_1_fake-arms-dealer-bangaru-laxman-sting-operation