Businessman gets 6-months jail in bribery case

A local court has sentenced a 38-year-old businessman from Kalwa in the district to six months of jail for accepting bribe on behalf of an employee of the state power utility in 2011.

In the order passed yesterday, Thane Assistant Sessions Judge R V Tamhanekar also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the convict Champalal alias Sampat Khangarbhai Rawal.

The main accused in the case- a lineman with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) Sopan Laxman Ghodke had died during the trial.

The prosecution told the court that Ghodke had sought bribe from complainant Ashok Lalji Gupta alleging that the latter had tampered with the electricity meter. He asked Gupta to pay Rs 80,000.

Gupta then approached the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), which laid a trap on January 1, 2011 and caught Rawal accepting Rs 10,000 on behalf of the lineman.

Prosecutor Rekha Hiwerale told the court that before that Ghodke had accepted Rs 20,000 from Gupta. During a search conducted at his house, the ACB officials had recovered the cash.

In her submission, the prosecutor cited the famous ruling by the Supreme Court in the matter of State Of Karnataka vs Selvi J Jayalalithaa and others. "Mere fact that a public servant dies during the pendency of trial will not divest jurisdiction of court to try a private person," the apex court had ruled.

The prosecutor also told the court that Rawal had helped the main accused in taking gratification, hence should not be acquitted.

Observing that the offence is of serious nature and against the society at large, the court awarded the sentence.