Central Excise Officers' conviction upheld by Supreme Court
HERE we have a Superintendent of Central Excise and his subordinate an Inspector of Central Excise, who took a bribe of Rs. 1000 each from an assessee on 4.6.1996 and were promptly picked up by the CBI. Actually the Superintendent was not in his cabin when the assessee came to his office with CBI in tow. The Inspector assured him that he was empowered to take the bribe on behalf of both himself and the Superintendent. So, the bribe amount of Rs. 2000 was handed over to him. He counted the money with both hands and kept it in his shirt pocket.
Both were charged with offences under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Now, interestingly the Inspector claimed that he had not taken any bribe and had taken the money only on behalf of the Superintendent and he had no share in it. The Superintendent said he had nothing to do with the whole episode, as he was not caught red-handed. The trial court, High Court and the Supreme Court were not amused.
In a recent judgement, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the Superintendent and Inspector and ordered that they may be taken into custody immediately. For that 1000 rupees in 1996, both would lose their jobs and will be in jail for some time added to the misery of the last nearly twenty years. Worth it?