Man Took Rs 100 Bribe In 1995, Will Now Spend A Year In Jail At 75
A corruption case that began at Ranchi’s Hatia Railway Station in 1995 has finally reached its conclusion, nearly 31 years later.
Ranchi: A Rs 100 bribe taken more than three decades ago has resulted in a jail sentence for a 75-year-old former railway employee after the Jharkhand High Court upheld his conviction.
The case dates back to April 1995, when Kali Shankar Dhobi was working as a parcel clerk at Ranchi’s Hatia Railway Station.
According to the prosecution, a man named Nirmal Kumar Begani wanted to send his motorcycle from Hatia Railway Station to Samastipur in Bihar. Dhobi allegedly demanded Rs 100 from him to book the motorcycle.
Begani subsequently approached the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which verified the complaint and laid a trap.
On April 27, 1995, the CBI team caught Dhobi while he was allegedly accepting the Rs 100 bribe. A case was then registered against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The matter went before a special court, but it took nearly nine years for the trial to conclude. In 2004, the special court convicted Dhobi and sentenced him to one year in prison along with a Rs 4,000 fine under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
He was also sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison and fined Rs 6,000 under Section 13(2). The two sentences were ordered to run concurrently.
Dhobi challenged the conviction before the Jharkhand High Court.
Case Remained Pending For More Than Two Decades
The legal battle continued for years after the trial court’s verdict. Dhobi’s appeal remained pending before the High Court for more than two decades.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the High Court, presided over by Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, upheld the conviction.
However, the court took a different view on the punishment.
Jail Term Reduced At The Age Of 75
The High Court considered several factors while reducing Dhobi’s sentence, including the unusually long period for which the case had remained pending, his age and his health condition.
The one-year sentence under Section 7 was reduced to six months. The one-and-a-half-year sentence under Section 13(2) was reduced to one year.
Since both sentences will run concurrently, Dhobi will serve a maximum of one year in prison.
Dhobi had already lost his railway job following his conviction. The court was also informed that he had no previous criminal record and that this was his first offence.
Despite these circumstances, the High Court did not overturn his conviction.
The court has cancelled his bail and directed him to surrender within two months.
So, after a legal battle spanning almost 31 years, Dhobi, now 75, is set to serve the jail sentence ordered by the court over a Rs 100 bribe accepted in 1995.
News Source : Information for this article was gathered from a variety of reliable news outlets.
