Income Tax Additional Commissioner gets five years RI for bribe
THE charge against the IRS officer (let us call him SK) is that he demanded a bribe of Rs. 10 lakhs from an assessee. And then started the episode like a Bollywood movie.
The assessee alerted the CBI. SK had asked the assessee to bring the money to a road in Modi Nagar. It was 25/05/2006. The assessee and the CBI team in two cars reached the destined spot. Our SK also reached the spot in a Scorpio car and boarded the assessee’s car and both the cars proceeded to Meerut side. The CBI car followed them. In the car, the assessee handed over Rs. 8 lakhs in a polythene bag to SK. After some time both the cars stopped and SK called somebody from his car and handed over the money who took it back to the Scorpio. Both the cars again moved - of course followed by the CBI car. After sometime, again both the cars stopped and of course the third car of the CBI. SK got down from the vehicle and proceeded to board his Scorpio. At that moment the CBI team surrounded him and his car. He extricated himself, got into his car and the driver of the car first drove the car in reverse side and then moved ahead in high speed endangering the life of CBI team members.
Then started the Chase - with message flashed to the local Police. During the chase, SK threw away the bag containing the bribe money on the road from his Scorpio. The CBI team picked up the money and continued the chase. Local Police tried to stop the Scorpio at several places. Finally the car was taken into control. In the car, they found two other gentlemen - one was the driver and the other was the one who took the money from SK. The wife of SK (also an IRS officer) and their daughter were also found in the car. BUT SK WAS MISSING! The two gentlemen were arrested and SK surrendered before the Court on 27/05/2006.
It took 8 years for the trial and the CBI Court this week found SK guilty and convicted him.
The Special Judge, CBI Court made some interesting remarks while delivering his judgement:
If an individual is posted as a senior officer in a city, the normal presumption for a businessman is that the officer is all-powerful and can initiate any action against him. The normal perception of common man is that an officer may not give any benefit but if the officer so desires may harm the common man. This unfortunate perception of nuisance value amongst the common people drive them to the payment of bribe and encourage the unscrupulous and corrupt public servants towards the demand of bribe.
While awarding the sentence, the Judge made some more wise observations:
It has been established on record that convict demanded and accepted a bribe of Rs. 8 lakhs from the complainant. The convict is an IRS officer of 1989 batch and at the time of incident, he was posted as Addl. Director (Investigation), Income Tax at Meerut. Indian Revenue Service is one of the premier services of this country and the system has conferred exemplary power upon the IRS officers. They are basically the pivots of entire economic system in the country. The IRS officers are generally at very sensitive positions and handle the revenue matters of public at large and ultimately of the entire nation. The corruption in any form, at any stage and by any public servant, on whatsoever position he/she is, is condemnable. However, if the corruption is done by the senior officers then it deserves special treatment. The country is run by the bureaucracy manned by senior officers and if such senior officers indulge in corruption then future of the country is actually in danger. It is painful to note that this country sometimes is being branded as the corrupt nation. The perception of common man has become such that nothing moves without indulging into corruption.
Any lenient view in awarding the punishment may be considered as an incentive to public servants who are susceptible to corruption to indulge in such nefarious practices with immunity.
It may be noted that the public servant represents the Government in the eyes of the public and any incident of corruption on the part of the public servant shakes the confidence of the public in the system itself. The loss of confidence in the governance has many ill effects including slow growth rate, bad law and order and over all mismanagement in the society.
I consider that a message must go that nobody is above the law and that indulging in corruption is a risky proposition. The society looks upon the Court in appropriate cases for a maximum punishment so as to have deterrent effect on the society at large.
He was awarded RI for five years with a fine of Rs. 50,000/-.