Two get jail term for bribing BJP MLA

Two men have been sentenced to one year in jail by a Delhi court for offering bribe of Rs six lakh to BJP MLA Karan Singh Tanwar for getting allotment of three shops in a market here 18 years ago.
Special CBI Judge Rajiv Mehra awarded the jail term to Delhi residents Jasbir Singh Chawla and Shoeb Ahmed for criminal conspiracy and abetting the offence of public servant taking illegal gratification for his official work in 1995.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each on the two convicts. It, however, allowed their plea for suspension of sentence for a month to file an appeal in superior court.

It said in case they do not appeal till September 30, they will surrender before the court on October 1 to serve the sentence of one year rigorous imprisonment.
According to CBI, 58-year-old Chawla and 45-year-old Ahmed in pursuance of their conspiracy were found offering bribe of Rs six lakh to MLA Tanwar for allotment of three shops.
The accused had told Tanwar, complainant in the case, that they would pay him Rs two lakh cash and rest Rs four lakh would be given to him after allotment.

The case was registered in October 1995 by the CBI on a complaint of Tanwar, who was also an administrator of Fish and Poultry Market Committee in Jama Masjid here at that time.

The complaint said Chawla had submitted four applications on behalf of different parties and he was offering a bribe of Rs six lakh for the allotment of at least three shops against three applications received by Kanwar.
It alleged that despite refusal of the complainant to the offer of bribe, Chawla told him that he would visit his office in Naraina on October 16, 1995 and would give him Rs two lakh for the allotment of the shop and rest of the amount would be paid after receiving the allotment orders.
CBI formed a trap team and both the accused were caught when they were giving money to the complainant.

According to a witness, Chawla was the then convener of Minority Cell Youth Congress for District Karol Bagh.
Dismissing Chawla's plea, the court said, "The only explanation offered by Chawla is that it was on account of party fund which is not believable for the reason that complainant and Chawla belong to two different political parties BJP and Congress and there was no reason for the accused to offer the amount of Rs two lakh as party donation to complainant".