MCD official jailed for two years for taking bribe

A Delhi court has awarded two years jail term to an assistant sanitary inspector of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for allegedly demanding and accepting bribe.

A Delhi court has awarded two years jail term to an assistant sanitary inspector of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for allegedly demanding and accepting bribe.

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"Corruption is a scourge that not only severally affects progress and development in the society but also poses a grave challenge to governance itself," observed Special Judge V K Maheshwari, while sending Lalit Gupta to jail for two years. The court also fined him Rs 15,000.

Gupta was arrested by the CBI in May 2001 on a complaint by Delhi resident Jai Pal, alleging that Gupta was demanding Rs 5,000 for regularisation of his wife's service as a sanitary worker (safai karamchari) with the municipal body.

The accused was caught by a CBI team at his Trilokpuri office here and was found in possession of chemically-treated currency notes of Rs 3,000 given by Jai Pal which were provided to him by the investigation agency.

While convicting Gupta, the court, however, acquitted his alleged accomplice Brij Pal, who too was arrested for facilitating the crime.

Brij Pal had allegedly accepted the bribe on behalf of Gupta and then handed it over to him, when the CBI sleuths arrested the duo.

He had also contended that he was not present in Trilokpuri on May 21, 2001 as he had already joined his duties at Krishna Nagar ward on May 17.

The court trashed his claims, saying, "it is well proved that accused had demanded illegal gratification and voluntarily accepted Rs 3,000 from Jai Pal." The court also relied on forensic reports to convict Gupta.