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Chandigarh: Former income tax officer awarded 6-year RI in DA case
The special CBI court also ordered confiscation of case property, including gold bricks, gold coins and gold jewellery; imposes ₹5-lakh fine
Two days after his conviction in a disproportionate assets (DA) case, Rakesh Jain, former income tax officer (ITO), Chandigarh branch, was awarded six-year rigorous imprisonment by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Friday.
In addition to the sentence, the court of special CBI judge Jagjit Singh also directed that the case property be confiscated by the state. A fine of ₹5 lakh was also imposed on the convict.
On February 6, 2013, Rakesh was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of ₹50,000 from a local businessman in Sector 20. His mother, Kanta Jain, was also an accused in the case, but she died during the trial.
The trap to catch Rakesh was laid on the basis of a complaint filed by Ashok Arora. Rakesh was arrested from his Sector-22 residence with the bribe money. Arora, who had a real estate firm in Sector 22, was served a notice by the income tax department. He met Rakesh, who offered to settle the matter in exchange of ₹3.5 lakh and the deal was later finalised at ₹2.5 lakh. Following this, Arora approached the CBI and the trap was laid.
During the investigation, the CBI had recovered two gold bricks (1 kg each) and documents pertaining to investment in shares amounting to ₹60 lakh, among other items, from his residence. The sleuths had also recovered another 1 kg gold brick, gold coins and jewellery weighing 500 gm from Rakesh’s lockers in Bank of Baroda and State Bank of Patiala.
While Rakesh was sentenced to four-year rigorous imprisonment in the graft case, the CBI had launched a separate inquiry against him after the recovery of valuables.
A chargesheet in the DA case was filed in 2015. His wife, Suneet Jain, was also treated as an accused in the case, but was acquitted on Wednesday. Proceedings against Kanta Jain were dropped after her death in 2014.
After his conviction on Wednesday, Jain had pleaded for leniency. He prayed that he had lost his government job due to his previous conviction in a money laundering case in 2020, and his elder son was suffering from brain seizures and has been undergoing treatment for the past 12 years.
The public prosecutor for CBI, meanwhile, argued that the convict was earlier posted as an ITO and required to collect revenue for the state, but instead he had been harassing common citizens and accumulating wealth for himself. It was also argued that if a lenient view was taken a wrong message will be sent to society.
While sentencing Jain, the court observed that the convict was always aware of his acts and actions. The court also cited two judgments of the Supreme Court, calling corruption a malaise and how large-scale corruption retarded nation building activities and everyone had to suffer on that count.
“The convict does not deserve the leniency as sought for by him. Not only did his actions affect him, but also his entire family who would be having full faith in him. It is perchance that his parents are no more, else they would also have been facing the agony of the present trial, only due to the acts and actions of the present convict,” the court observed.
