CBI court awards 4-year jail to former senior PNB manager

PANCHKULA: The special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) awarded four-year imprisonment to the then senior bank manager of Punjab National Bank, Fatehpur in Kaithal for seeking and accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a person who sought a loan under the Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana.

Convict Dharampal Dhull, 60, has been held guilty and convicted for committing offences punishable under Sections 7 and 13 (1)(d) read with Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The FIR was registered on March 2, 2016 by the anti-crime bureau of the CBI, Chandigarh. There were allegations that Dhull had demanded and accepted the bribe from complainant Sandeep, who had applied for a loan under the Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana. He was arrested by the CBI with the first instalment of Rs 10,000.

Seeking leniency, Dhull had stated that he is not a previous convict and was not involved in any criminal activity.

He is facing the agony of a protracted trial since 2016. So, a lenient view may be taken while awarding a sentence for him.

But public prosecutor for the CBI, Kanwar Pal Singh, argued that in order to check rampant corruption in public life, it is needed to give exemplary punishment to the public servant who was found indulging in corrupt practices.

Sushil Kumar Garg, special judge, CBI, said: “Be you ever so high, the law is above you. One lie is enough to question all truths. But it is the duty of the court to enforce the rule of law and, thus, to guard against erosion of the rule of law. We all are governed by the rule of law, not by the rule of man.”

“This court agrees with arguments of the public prosecutor and observation made in the judgment cited by him that undue sympathy to impose inadequate sentence would be more harmful to the justice system to undermine the public confidence in efficacy of law and corruption is a hydra-headed monster and it is eating into vitals of the country,” the court observed.

Stating that his conduct is highly deplorable, judge Sushil Kumar Garg observed: “Any softness in this regard could produce an undesirable result, namely, encouragement to adoption of corrupt means by public servants which has indeed to be checked.” The court awarded him four-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.