3 held for corruption in courts

Indore, Dec 2 (UNI) In a drive against corruption in subordinate courts, two court officials and an employee of the Forest department were caught redhanded yesterday while taking bribe at the Burhanpur court in Madhya Pradesh.

The action followed High Court Chief Justice A K Patnaik's directive to end corrupt practices among the court ministerial staff. High Court Registrar General K C Sharma, Registrar(Vigilance) Jayant Chavan and Indore's District Judge (Vigilance) N K Garg were directed to lay the trap, official sources said.

A resident of Burhanpur had complained about the demand of R Rs 10,000 as bribe by a court Reader and a Forest official to dispose off a case relating to cheque bouncing. Another complaint relates to demand by a Copyist Rs 300 to provide a certified copy of one-page order.

A 10-member team, including two judges of Indore, conducted the operation with the assistance of the complainant. The Copyist was caught taking bribe of Rs 300.

Later the Forest official, who acted as middleman due to his frequent visit to the court in connection with departmental cases, was offered Rs 4000 as he was earlier given Rs 4000 after he scaled down the bribe demand from Rs 10,000 to Rs 8,000.

The Reader also received Rs 500 inside the court itself. The raiding party caught the three officials and recovered the bribe amount.

Both court officials were suspended immediately.

UNI AA-SP SI RAI1338