4-year jail for former cop of railway force in graft case

Tribune News Service
Panchkula, July 9

Stating that bribery among police officials is one of the most common acts of corruption, a special CBI court here today sentenced a 60-year-old former SI of Railway Protection Force (RPF) to four years of rigorous punishment for accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a labourer at Jakhal in September, 2016.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 40,000 on the convict.

The convict, Devinder Singh, who was then posted at Jakhal railway station in Haryana, had demanded a bribe of Rs 30,000 from Mandeep Singh in lieu of not taking action against him and his two fellow labourers after he illegally detained them for allegedly damaging an optical fibre cable of the railway station during their work.

Devinder has been held guilty and convicted three years under section 7 and four years under section 13 (1) (d) read with section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

However, the sentences will run concurrently.

“It is pertinent to mention here that police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers abused their power for personal gain. Police officers have several opportunities to gain personally from their status and authority as law enforcement officers... Bribery among police officials is one of the most common acts of corruption. The cancer of corruption in the police very often jeopardises constitutional governance and acts as catalyst in the violation of civil and human rights of the citizens.

“Therefore, to curb the menace of corruption in society, strict action is required against such police officials who generate distrust amongst the civilian against the police department,’’ said Special CBI judge Sushil Kumar Garg in his order.

Praying for the lenient view, the defence counsel for the accused-convict had stated that he was not a previous convict, was 60 years old, the sole breadwinner of the family and was suffering from various ailments like knees and heart problems. All his retirement benefits had already been stopped by the department. He was facing the agony of protracted trial since 2016 and had requested a lenient view while awarding sentence to him.

On the other hand, CBI counsel KP Singh argued: ‘’Corruption in the police department is at peak and in order to check rampant corruption in public life, it is the need of the hour to give an exemplary punishment to such public servants, who are found indulging in corrupt practices. The public servants have a moral obligation to serve the country and its citizens with utmost honesty. Taking a lenient view in such matters sends a wrong message to the undesirable elements in society, therefore, a stringent and deterrent punishment may be given to the accused-convict.’’

Devinder had detained the complainant and his fellow labourers Randhir Singh and Chandi Ram on the intervening night of September 13 and 14 in 2016.

He had demanded an illegal gratification of Rs 30,000 in lieu of releasing them as well as an impounded car. He subsequently reduced the bribe money to Rs 15,000. On September 14, 2016, the accused- convict directed the complainant to hand over Rs 10,000 as bribe money to Sourabh Saini, a resident of New Basti near the railway station.

Following a complaint, the investigating agency laid a trap and arrested Saini while taking the bribe money of Rs 10,000 from the complainant.