Customs Officers Sentenced to six years imprisonment 23 years after prosecution was launched
A Customs Story - Dramatis personae:
1. Surjit Singh Tagore, Superintendent, Customs (Drawback)
2. Rajinder Singh, Inspector, Customs, ICD Tughlakabad
3. BS Meena, Inspector, Customs
4. RS Meena, Inspector, Customs
It was a long journey - 23 years to be precise and no, there is no light at the end of the tunnel - what they got at the end is a jail term.
In the year 1993, the above mentioned Customs officers were charged with assisting some persons to claim fraudulent drawback by signing fake shipping bills and certifying to have sealed non-existing containers. Around 11 lakh rupees have been fraudulently taken as drawback with the active connivance and support of the Customs officers.
The CBI booked a case and prosecuted these officers. After 23 years, the CBI court delivered its verdict this month.
The Court found all of them guilty. While arguing on sentence, the Public Prosecutor submitted:
1. The offences for which the accused persons have been convicted effects the society at large and prays for maximum punishment and fine.
2. The accused persons have been convicted for the crime committed for economic offences which affects the economy of the country. All convicts have committed such offences while they were holding responsible posts as public servants and ultimately it affected the dreams of billions of people of this country towards the attainment of self-dependency of this country.
3. The accused persons are not small people. They are highly educated persons holding high educational qualifications and are role model of the people and the society where they used to sit and live.
4. If such people are allowed to go scot free or only awarded minimum sentences then definitely it will convey wrong message to the society to the effect that nothing would happen if one does corruption.
5. These people misused their education and worked to put obstructions against the growth of this country.
The Counsel for the accused submitted that the accused Superintendent was:
1. 75 years old
2. Suffering from chronic kidney failure disease with increased serum creatinine and GFR fall.
3. Suffering from Neuro (Brain) problem for the last 14 years. He suffered stroke due to blood clot in brain due to which he suffered paralytic attack.
4. Also suffering from heart problem and is in first degree heart block and intermittent 2nd degree atrioventricular block. He is also stated to be suffering from chronic problem of blood sugar (Diabetes). He is also suffering from liver problem, herpes, backache, vision loss and hearing impairment.
5. Taking atleast 20 medicines on daily basis. He is under medical supervision in Jail Medical Inspection Room after he was sent to jail after conviction on07.04.2016.
6. His wife is 67 years of age who is also suffering from Neuro (depression) problem, High BP,weakness of bones and various other old age ailments. He also suffered due to prolonged trial of 23 years.
The Court was not impressed and observed,
1. Long pendency of the trial or long time taken to conclude trial does not make a ground for mitigating sentence. Therefore, arguments raised by learned defence counsel to take lenient view due to such facts is not going to help the convicts.
2. The Court has to consider important fact that all the accused persons in this case are educated persons. A person committed offence when having sense of judgment to differentiate between right or wrong, should be given harsher punishment.
3. Court can take judicial notice of public behaviour that whenever a culprit committed crime on the road, the entire public catches the culprit and handled in such a way that half of the punishment got by that culprit on the road itself.
4. in this country most of the people have made the way of corruption as their way of living style as it appears to them the easiest route to get early success and easy wealth.
The Sentence:
The Court awarded a sentence of Simple Imprisonment for a period of six years with a fine of Rs. 10 lakhs on the Superintendent. Simple imprisonment has been awarded keeping in view his advanced age of 75 years.
The Inspectors are awarded a sentence of six years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 10 lakhs each.
The trial is perhaps harsher than the sentence. For 23 years, these powerful officers of the Customs Department must have undergone terrible agony running around lawyers and courts and the final judgement is not yet over. There is still the High Court and the Supreme Court with jail in between.
Corruption doesn't really pay.