E-Paper
Family sentenced to 6 yrs in jail in disproportionate assets case
It is for the first time in the history of corruption-related justices in the state that a whole family was slapped with sentences for partnering in corrupt practices with head of the family even though they were not directly involved in the cases.
A Special Anti-Corruption Designated court here sentenced Ajmer dairy’s cattle feed plant’s former deputy manager Surendra Kumar Sharma, his wife Aruna (51), son Gaurav (26) and daughter Garima Sharma (24) to six years in jail in a disproportionate assets case.
All the convicts were also slapped with a fine of `25 lakh each and to undergo one more year in jail if failed to deposit the fine.
It is for the first time in the history of corruption-related justices in the state that a whole family was slapped with sentences for partnering in corrupt practices with head of the family even though they were not directly involved in the cases.
In his 300 page judgment the designated judge Phool Chand Jhajharia observed in his punch line, “To weed out corruption from the society, no leniency be given to people who accumulate wealth through corrupt practices. I am handing down the harshest punishment to the family to deter others from going this way.”
According to the case, on a tip off, the anti-corruption bureau on August 6, 2010, intercepted Sharma near Ajmer railway station and recovered `1.25 lakh from his car for which Sharma could not provide satisfactory answer to ACB.
On the same day, ACB raided Sharma’s residence in Vaishali Nagar and recovered `1.90 crore cash, 2kg gold, 4kg silver, property documents worth crores of rupees, bond and debenture papers running into lakhs and bank passbooks of several banks.
On August 17, 2010, ACB making four teams raided bank lockers in his family members’ name at Ajmer, Jaipur and Bikaner and recovered `2.50 crore cash and 7kg gold.
The ACB also recovered `15 lakh, `25 lakh and `14 lakh from accounts opened in the names of son Gaurav, wife Aruna and daughter Garima respectively in various banks.
The court has also ordered to deposit `4.94 crore and 9kg and 826 grams gold that was recovered from Sharma’s house and bank lockers into government treasury, said Anil Nag, Special PP anti-corruption court.
The ACB framing charges against all the accused filed a case against them on November 10, 2010.
