CBI awards 4-year jail to former Chandigarh ASI for graft

The special court of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) awarded 4-year-jail and ₹40,000 fine to Davinder Kumar, an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Chandigarh Police, for accepting ₹3,500 in bribe in May 2013.

The convict was held guilty and convicted under Sections 7, 13 (2) read with Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The CBI had booked Kumar on the complaint of one Amandeep Singh on May 21, 2013. Singh had complained that he bought some eatables from a shop and offered a ₹500 currency note to the shopkeeper, who claimed that the note was fake and called the police. Kumar questioned Singh regarding the fake note and sought ₹5,000 bribe, besides threatening him.

Singh approached the CBI and a trap was laid, wherein the complainant was asked to bargain the bribe amount. Later, Kumar was arrested while accepting ₹3,500 in bribe from Singh.

While the convict sought leniency, public prosecutor KP Singh argued that taking a lenient view sends a wrong message to the undesirable elements in society, therefore, stringent and deterrent punishment may be imposed.

The judge observed that the conduct of accused-convict was “highly deplorable”, and he “does not deserve any leniency”.

Special CBI judge Sushil Kumar Garg mentioned in the judgment: “Corruption in our country not only poses a grave danger to the concept of constitutional governance, it also threatens the very foundation of Indian democracy and the rule of law.” Stating that “where corruption begins all rights end”, the judge observed that the corrupt police officers can be divided into two categories — Meat eaters, who aggressively misuse their police powers for personal gain; and grass eaters, who simply accept the payoffs that happenstances their way.

“The cancer of corruption in police very often jeopardises constitutional governance and acts as catalyst in the violation of civil and human rights of the citizens. Therefore, to curb the menace of corruption in the society, strict action is required against such police officials who generate distrust amongst the civilians against the police department,” the judge observed.

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