HC reduces corrupt engineer''s jail term to one year from two

New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has reducedthe two-year jail term awarded to a MCD engineer for acceptingRs 10,000 as bribe from a contractor.

Justice A K Pathak gave partial relief to Junior EngineerS C Goel while upholding his conviction under the Preventionof Corruption Act by the trial court for accepting the bribeto clear the contractor''s bill pending with the civic body foreight years.

"I have no hesitation in holding that the appellant(Goel) had demanded and accepted from the complainant a sum ofRs 10,000 toward illegal gratification," said the high court,dismissing his appeal against the trial court order.

"He has, thus, committed an offence under Section 7 (fortaking bribe) and is also guilty of offence under Section13(1)(d) (for misusing his official position) of the Act sincehe obtained a pecuniary advantage in the form of cash forhimself by corrupt and illegal means and abusing his positionas a public servant," the court added.

While reducing the sentence, the high court cancelledGoel''s bail and ordered him to surrender forthwith.

"Goel shall surrender before the trial court forthwith. Acopy of this order be sent to the trial court with thedirection that if he fails to surrender before it, appropriatesteps be taken to take him into custody and send him to jailto serve the remaining sentence," the court said.

Goel was arrested by CBI while accepting the bribe fromthe contractor in his office.

The case against Goel was registered on a complaint bycontractor Manmohan Bhalla who had told CBI that his firm hadexecuted certain works for Municipal Corporation of Delhi(MCD) and had raised bills worth a few lakhs of rupees againstthis.

He had requested Goel to expedite clearing of the pendingbill and release the payment but Goel had demanded Rs 10,000from him in return, CBI had said in its chargesheet.