Poetic justice was played out in the Madras High Court on Tuesday, with a 64-year-old retired ministerial staff of the police department pleading with the judge to show mercy towards him after he was convicted in a 15-year-old case for having demanded and received a bribe of ₹2,000 from a retired sub inspector of police in 2008.
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Justice P. Velmurugan acceded to the request made by the aged convict, V. Ashok Kumar and imposed the minimum punishment of one year of rigorous imprisonment for one of the two charges, and another six months for the other charge, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The sentences were, however, ordered to run consecutively and not concurrently.
The judge also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on the convict and ordered that in default, he must undergo simple imprisonment for five months. The orders were passed while allowing a State appeal preferred in 2014 against the acquittal of the convict by the trial court. Taking up the appeal for final hearing now, the judge reversed the order of acquittal.
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Additional Public Prosecutor G.V. Kasthuri brought it to the notice of the court that the complainant had retired from service in 2005 but did not receive his emoluments because of pending proceedings related to unauthorised leave during his service period. Therefore, he had made a request to higher officials seeking his terminal benefits. In 2008, the present convict Ashok Kumar was serving as a Superintendent in the office of the Joint Commissioner of Police in Chennai and had demanded ₹2,000 from the complainant for forwarding the latter’s explanation to the government and making arrangements to release the gratuity, provident fund and monthly pension.
Unwilling to pay the bribe, the retired police officer had approached the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption sleuths. Accordingly, a trap was laid and the convict was caught red-handed while receiving the bribe money. He also tested positive in the phenolphthalein powder test in the presence of independent witnesses.
Yet, a special court for the Prevention of Corruption Act cases acquitted the convict in 2013 on technical grounds and hence the State had come up with the present appeal, the APP said. Finding force in her submissions, the judge held that there were enough materials to reverse the order of acquittal and record a conviction.
However, before imposing the punishment, the judge summoned the convict to hear him on the issue of quantum of sentence. The convict, now 64, pleaded with the court to show mercy. He feared that his pension would get affected because of the conviction especially at a time when he was looking for alliances to get his son married.
After hearing him out, the judge decided to impose the minimum punishment for the offences: the maximum punishment is five years under Section 7 and one year under Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988.