Court laments high level of corruption
Two get one-year rigorous imprisonment
New Delhi: India ranks prominently high in the list of countries plagued by corruption, a Delhi court has said while handing down one-year imprisonment to two convicts in a 24-year-old graft and forgery case.
Observing that the anti-corruption measures in India were perceived by people to be ineffective, Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge V.K. Maheshwari said that corruption was a scourge that not only affected progress and development in society but also posed a grave challenge to governance.
"The United Nations Global Report on Crime and Justice quotes public opinion surveys in a number of countries, to point out that citizenry in those countries ranks corruption as one among the five most important problems facing their society," the court said on Thursday, in a verdict that has just become available.
The judge said people's doubts over the ability of the criminal justice administration to deal with the corrupt led to public cynicism and distrust in almost all government institutions.
The court awarded one-year rigorous imprisonment to O.P. Dabas and A.K. Puri for helping a Tihar Jail inmate move to a state-owned hospital and avail nursing home facilities in 1988. The court also imposed a fine of Rs60,000 (Dh4,354) each on the convicts.
Special facilities
Dabas and Puri helped Gurbux Biryani, arrested in a drugs case, to shift from jail to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and then to the adjoining G.B. Pant Hospital and avail special nursing home facilities on two occasions — July 28, 1988 and August 5, 1988. Biryani died on January 25, 2010 during trial.
Dabas was working as reception assistant in G.B. Pant Hospital and Puri was the brother-in-law of Biryani.
The court held both of them guilty under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, criminal conspiracy and forgery.
