Two MCD employees get jail terms for graft

Seven years after two employees of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were caught red handed taking a bribe of Rs. 2,000 from a mason, a city court on Tuesday convicted them of corruption. Upasana Mukherjee reports.

Seven years after two employees of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were caught red handed taking a bribe of Rs. 2,000 from a mason, a city court on Tuesday convicted them of corruption.

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Special Judge BR Kedia, who held accused Vijender, a safai karamchari, and assistant sanitary inspector Vikram Singh guilty under section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, said corruption demoralised honest officers.

The court sentenced Vijender and Singh to rigorous imprisonment of two years and two-and-a-half-years, respectively. It also imposed fines of Rs. 7,500 on Singh and Rs. 5,000 on Vijender. They duo had asked for bribe from the mason if the latter wanted to escape from paying fine for keeping building material on the road.

“The social fabric is destroyed by corrupt practices in public service. The efficiency in public service will improve only when public servants exhibit honesty in day-to-day affairs,” the court said.

The anti-corruption branch of Delhi Police had arrested the two on June 7, 2005, from Mayur Vihar following a complaint.

The court noted that Vijender was acting under the instructions of his superior Vikram Singh in accepting the bribe from one Naim Singh, the mason who lodged the complaint.

“It cannot be ignored that the cancer of corruption has spread its tentacles to such an extent that the belief of the common man on the institutional work is obliterated,” the judge said.