HC upholds jail term for official
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Often, it is seen that public servants caught taking bribes somehow manage to escape punishment and go scot-free. In many cases, it is mostly due to lack of proper evidence and witnesses, who later turn hostile.
But, in the case of one official, the law finally caught up with him and he will now have to spend the initial days of his retirement behind bars serving a rigorous jail term, for at least for two years.
The high court, in a recent order, upheld the order of a lower court holding him guilty for offences committed under Prevention of Corruption Act. But the convicted official still recourse to approaching the Supreme Court.
In 2006, K.R.Srinivasappa, who was a revenue inspector at Holur hobli in Kolar, took a bribe of Rs 2,000 for issuing a khata. He was convicted by a lower court to undergo two years of rigorous imprisonment, as the evidence collected at the time the Lokayukta police trapped him and the testimony of witnesses during trial helped in nailing him.
The applicant approached the Lokayukta police, who laid a trap and caught him red-handed taking bribe.
After Srinivasappa was caught, the fingers on his right and shirt pocket were examined with sodium carbonate solution, and they turned pink, proving that he had handled the marked currency notes.
Justice A.N. Venugopala Gowda, who dismissed the appeal filed by the convict in the high court, recorded that the evidence makes it clear that the marked currency notes were found the shirt pocket of the accused.
“If the marked currency was thrust into the hand of the accused and if it is not a case of acceptance as alleged, the money would not have been kept in the shirt pocket by the accused”, the court said adding that the immediate reaction of the accused should have been to return the money to the complainant or to throw it away.
Instead, the currency notes, which were accepted in the right hand, was kept by the accused in the left shirt pocket.
The fingers on the right hand of the accused, when washed in sodium carbonate solution, have turned pink, the court noted. “In the circumstances, the alleged enmity between the accused and one of the prime witnesses, who allegedly conspired with complainant, even if true, is immaterial”, the high court ruled.
The bail and surety bonds have also been cancelled with directions to the accused to surrender before the trial court to serve the sentence.
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