Delhi Development Authority official gets 3 years in jail for graft

TNN May 18, 2012

NEW DELHI: A trial court has sentenced a DDA official to three years imprisonment for taking Rs 1,000 bribe to allow illegal construction. The court said a public servant cannot expect leniency on the ground that the bribe he took was a very small amount.

"It is pertinent to mention here that a person who is caught accepting bribe cannot be dealt with lenient view on the ground that he accepted a very small amount, for the reason that when the accused was caught, this might have been one of those innumerable occasions when he had accepted bribe," Special CBI Judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma said while also imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 on the convict.

The convict Raj Kumar Verma, who worked in Delhi Development Authority in 2009, had demanded bribe to allow unauthorized construction at the premises of Nanhe Ram, a businessman.

The Special Judge also said the accused cannot benefit by the plea that the construction was unauthorized as that does not give him a right to demand bribe. "Be that as it may be, even if the complainant (Nanhe Ram) was raising unauthorized construction, it would not give the right to the accused or anybody to ask for the bribe.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-05-18/delhi/31764546_1_bribe-illegal-construction-dda-official

Tamil Nadu IPS officer held in Delhi for Paazee scam

A Selvaraj & Neeraj Chauhan, TNN | May 3, 2012

CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: The CBI on Wednesday arrested a top IPS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, Pramod Kumar, from Delhi's Panchsheel Enclave for allegedly conspiring to get a bribe of Rs 10 crore from a private firm accused of duping the public of over Rs 800 crore.

Inspector general of police Pramod Kumar, 46, is a 1989-batch IPS officer. He will be produced before a designated court in Chennai on Thursday and sent to Puzhal prison. The officer has been on the run for the past several months, said a CBI officer, adding that Paazee Forex Trading Co in Tirupur had allegedly duped investors to the tune of Rs 829 crore.

Earlier, CBI teams raided his apartment at the SAF Games Village in Koyambedu on March 22. Subsequently, police teams searched his house twice in connection with the Paazee case. The officer wasn't home when the CBI raided it.

"I am innocent. I am seeking pardon from God. I have done nothing wrong. I was informed about the raid at my house. I came to Delhi on official duty," Kumar told TOI.

CBI sources said they had taken away bundles of documents from his house after the raid lasting three hours. Senior CBI officials, however, refused to share any information.

The seized material will be scrutinized before being submitted to the court. If we need any clarification in connection with the seized material, we will ask Pramod Kumar," aCBI officer said.

Pramod Kumar was IGP when the scam surfaced in 2008. According to police, K Kathiravan, a reporter with a Tamil daily in Tirupur, and his son, K Mohanraj, started the forex company in the hosiery town of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu in 2008.

Soon, Chennai-based A Kamalavalli joined as managing director of the firm. With agents appointed all over Tamil Nadu, the company collected nearly Rs 111 crore from depositors. Agents got 15% commission on every deposit while 10% commission went to the depositor.

In 2010, CID sleuths arrested those involved in the case. During questioning, the economic offences wing registered 10,332 cases against the Paazee Company for cheating Rs 211 crores of depositors. A few depositors approached the Madras high court seeking CBI inquiry, which was ordered last month.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Tamil-Nadu-IPS-officer-held-in-Delhi-for-Paazee-scam/articleshow/12973788.cms

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

Ex-AIIMS doc took bribe, gets 3-year RI

TNN | Feb 7, 2012

NEW DELHI: A trial court has sentenced a former medical superintendent of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to three years' rigorous imprisonment for accepting bribe in 1998 from a private company, which used to supply cotton to the medical institute. 

Special judge B R Kedia convicted 71-year-old Dr R C Anand under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and also slapped a fine of Rs 30,000 on him. The court also convicted a former junior store officer at AIIMS for destruction of evidence. Vyas Narayan Singh, 66, was awarded a one-year jail term and was fined Rs 10,000 by the court after the prosecution proved the allegations against the duo "beyond reasonable doubt". 

The case dates back to 1998 when Sageer Ahmed Khan, owner of Shifaa Scientific Fibre, a company which used to supply cotton to AIIMS, filed a complaint with the anti-corruption branch against the duo, alleging that Dr Anand was demanding Rs 5,000 as bribe for the tender he was given. 

He also alleged that Dr Anand demanded a commission of 2% on the entire future contract. The anti-corruption branch then laid down a trap and all the conversations of Dr Anand were recorded with the complainant. 

Dr Anand was arrested while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Ex-AIIMS-doc-took-bribe-gets-3-year-RI/articleshow/11786616.cms

Ex-Addil Commissioner of Income Tax sent to jail for 4 yrs

New Delhi, Feb 1, 2012, (PTI):

A former Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, arrested by CBI for demanding Rs one lakh as bribe for clearing a tax return matter, has been sentenced to four years in jail by a Delhi court.

Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh also imposed a fine of Rs four lakh on convict H A Siddiqui in the graft case registered against him in 2003 on a complaint by a chartered accountant M M Sachdeva.

"Prosecution (CBI) has been successful in proving that accused H A Siddiqui had demanded bribe of Rs one lakh from R P Katyal through his CA M M Sachdeva who is the complainant in this case.

"...The conversation recorded in office of the accused shows that demand of bribe was made by the accused in clear words and place of acceptance was to be fixed later on as he had taken the mobile phone number of Katyal," the court said.

According to CBI, Sachdeva had filed Katyal's income tax return for 2000-01 and it was selected for scrutiny assessment and a notice in this regard was received by Katyal on October 25, 2002.

Siddiqui started sending summons to them in this regard and called Katyal to pay Rs one lakh bribe, the agency said.

It said a trap team was constituted and it apprehended Siddiqui and one M C Gupta, who was a prosecution witness in the case, at the spot and money was recovered from the polybag carried by Gupta.

CBI had registered the FIR in the case on April 2, 2003, and had filed its chargesheet against Siddiqui in November that year.

During the trial, Siddiqui claimed innocence saying Sachdeva and Gupta, both chartered accountants, had tried to get undue advantage from him and when he refused to do so, they implicated him in a false case.

The court, however, said CBI has proved its case against Siddiqui beyond reasonable doubt.

The court also relied on reports regarding identification of voices saying that it has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that the voice samples were of Siddiqui, Sachdeva and Katyal.

"Report regarding identification of voices in the questioned recording as well as the specimen recording are proved beyond reasonable doubt being of accused (Siddiqui), the complainant and Katyal," it said.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/223733/ex-addil-commissioner-income-tax.html

Senior IAS officer held in Rs 125-cr scam

TNN Feb 2, 2012

KOLKATA: The CID arrested additional secretary Debaditya Chakraborty on Wednesday for his alleged involvement in a 125-crore scam, the first time such a senior IAS officer has been arrested in the state. R M Jamir, a retired IAS officer who was the director of a PSU at the centre of the scam, has also been held.

The arrests were confirmed by DIG, CID (operations) K Jayaraman. The two will be produced in court on Thursday, he said. Several agencies, including the detective department of Kolkata Police, were probing the scam for quite some time but had not received permission to arrest the IAS officer , sources said.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-02/kolkata/31016809_1_ias-officer-pratap-biswal-bharat-inmate