Govt official sent to jail in bribery case

A government official has been sentenced to five years in jail by a Delhi court for accepting a bribe of Rs two lakhs from a scrap metal firm to favour it in allotment of lots during e-auction of metal waste.
Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Jain awarded the jail term to 57-year-old Samir Kumar Ghosh, who was Senior Manager with MSTC Limited here, after holding him guilty under the various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
"Keeping in view the entire facts and circumstances of the case, nature and gravity of offence, incriminating and mitigating circumstances and the need of the time, in my opinion undue leniency in such cases is neither desirable nor warranted.

"The punishment should be proportionate to the gravity of offence but as well as should be deterrent enough to give a right message to such similar offenders," the court said and also imposed a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh on the convict.
The court, however, acquitted accused Rajeev Kant Sharan, a coordinator of MSTC Limited for Defence, after it found that there was no direct evidence against him.
CBI had filed the chargesheet against the duo on the complaint made by one Piyush Luharuwalla, a proprietor of M/s Karishma Enterprises which was dealing in scrap metal.

Piyush had told CBI that he had participated in e-auction of MSTC Ltd. For purchase of five lots of scrap metal in January, 2007 and out of the five lots, two lots were shown as sold to his firm and rest three were shown as STA (subject to approval) on January 23, 2007.

He had further alleged Ghosh had contacted him over his mobile and asked for Rs three lakhs as bribe for favouring his firm in allotment of remaining three lots, as otherwise the same would be processed adversely.
MSTC Limited is a mini ratna category-I PSU under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India.