A special CBI court in Lucknow, on Thursday, sentenced a retired 82-year-old railway clerk to one-year imprisonment in a 32-year-old case for taking a bribe of Rs 100.
The court of special CBI judge Ajai Vikram Singh refused to show any leniency to the convict who was seeking lesser punishment on the ground of his old age, and observed that doing so would give a wrong message to society.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on the convict, Ram Narayan Verma.
Verma pleaded before the judge that the incident occurred 32 years ago and he had already spent two days in jail before being released on bail, earlier in the case. He pleaded that his punishment may be confined to the term already spent in jail so that he may not have to go to jail to serve the remaining sentence.
Refusing the plea, the judge said two days’ imprisonment was not adequate in this case and one-year imprisonment would serve the purpose of justice, given the amount of bribe, nature of the offense and other factors.
A retired loco driver of Northern Railways, Ram Kumar Tiwari, had lodged FIR in the case with CBI in 1991. Tiwari in his FIR alleged that for the purpose of computing his pension, his medical test was required. Verma demanded a Rs 150 bribe for the purpose. Later, he demanded Rs 100. CBI arrested Verma red-handed with the bribe amount.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against Verma after completing the probe. The court framed charges on the accused on November 30, 2022.
