Observing that “corruption is a hydra-headed monster and it is eating into vitals of the country,” a Delhi court has sentenced two engineers of then Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in Shahadara (North Zone) to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment each in a “ghost labour” scam case during 2002-2003.
De-silting drains
Special Judge Hemani Malhotra sentenced then Junior Engineer Agnesh Verma and Assistant Engineer Tara Chand after holding them guilty of pocketing over ₹15 lakh in the name of 791 labourers who were shown to have worked on de-silting of drains before monsoon.
The witnesses — labourers whom the convicts showed in the muster rolls to have received the payments — categorically stated that they had never received any such wages, and that the signatures or thumb impressions appended against receipt in the muster rolls did not belong to them.
“During the trial, it was proved that convicts Junior Engineer Agnesh Verma and Assistant Engineer Tara Chand in their respective capacities had entered into a criminal conspiracy and in furtherance of their conspiracy, convict Agnesh Verma had shown to have disbursed wages to non-existent... labour in the muster rolls after getting the payment released to him which... were countersigned by convict Tara Chand,” the judge said in the conviction order.
‘Moral obligation’
“The public servants have a moral obligation to serve the country and its citizens with utmost honesty. The convicts in the present case, thus, in utter disregard of public duty introduced ghost labour in the muster rolls and misappropriated/pocketed lakhs of rupees belonging to the Conservancy and Sanitation Engineering Department, Shahadara (north), MCD, by showing disbursement of wages to those ghost labour in the muster rolls,” the Judge further said.
No leniency
“The convicts in the instant case, instead served themselves by indulging in corrupt practices over a series of transactions over a period of three months by introducing ghost labour in the muster rolls thereby siphoning public money. The quantum of money actually misappropriated is not material or germane. It is not a routine general case of corruption where a public servant is held guilty of taking bribe for a particular act from a victim,” the judge said while rejecting their plea for a lenient punishment.
