Former Central Excise Commissioner Sentenced to Four Years RI
FORMER Central Excise Commissioner Ms LR Mithran was sentenced to a four year Rigorous Imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 20,000 for accepting a bribe of Rs. 8 lakhs from an assessee for reducing his duty liability from Rs. 36 Crores to Rs. 9 Crores.
The CBI registered the case in 1999 and now the seventy year old Madam Mithran is in jail. This once powerful woman always fashionably dressed (even yesterday in Court when the verdict was pronounced) will now have to wear jail clothes and will be treated like any other criminal.
In the Departmental proceedings, she was awarded a major penalty of reducing pension by 25% for ten years!
In modern society, punishment is not retributive but exemplary – so that others learn. Will they?