Rupnagar DEO staff gets four-year-jail in ₹5k graft case

The court of Harsimranjit Singh, additional session judge, Mohali, also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on the convict Santosh Kumar, who was district special educator at DEO, elementary office, Rupnagar

A Mohali court on Monday awarded four-year jail to a staff member at the Rupnagar district education officer (elementary) office for allegedly taking ₹5,000 bribe to clear a bill of ₹31,840 of an auto driver hired by the department to pick and drop disabled students.

The accused was convicted despite the fact that the complainant, Sohan Singh of Sri Chamkaur Sahib, Rupnagar, had turned hostile in the case. (HT Photo)

The court of Harsimranjit Singh, additional session judge, Mohali, also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on the convict Santosh Kumar, who was district special educator at DEO, elementary office, Rupnagar.

The accused was convicted despite the fact that the complainant, Sohan Singh of Sri Chamkaur Sahib, Rupnagar, had turned hostile in the case.

Sohan Singh used to ply disabled students and staff of a government school in his auto-rickshaw in lieu of which he was paid by DEO, elementary office.

On March 31, 2019, he submitted a bill of ₹31,840 to the said education office.

On April 2, 2019, he again visited the DEO office to check the status of the payment where the accused sought ₹5,000 bribe to clear his bill. The complainant then lodged a complaint with DSP vigilance, Rupnagar.

Next day, a vigilance bureau (VB) team laid a trap and gave seven currency notes to the complainant, including a note of ₹2,000 and six notes of ₹500. The VB caught the accused red-handed accepting the bribe and recovered the same currency notes from his possession.

The VB registered an FIR on April 3, 2019, under section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

Later during trial, the complainant turned hostile but the court accepted the contentions of the public prosecutor Manjit Singh and awarded four-year-jail to the convict.