Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) A special court has convicted a former additional commissioner of Income Tax for corruption and sentenced him to four years jail.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Talwant Singh, in his order Tuesday but only made available Wednesday, sentenced H.A. Siddiqui to four years rigorous imprisonment and also slapped a fine of Rs.4 lakh on him.

“Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, I sentence convict Siddiqui to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of four years under section 13 (2) read with 13(1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act,” said the judge.

According to prosecution, Siddiqui had demanded bribe of Rs.1 lakh from R.P. Katyal to settle his tax case.

“A trap was laid and the accused was caught red-handed while demanding and accepting bribe,” said the prosecution.

The FIR was filed on Apr 2, 2003 while CBI filed its charge sheet in the case Nov 24, 2003. The court framed charge against the accused on July 15, 2004.

The prosecution has presented 16 witnessed to prove its case.

The court said that the prosecution has been successful to prove that Siddiqui had demanded bribe from Katyal through his chartered accountant M.M. Sachdeva.

“The conversation recorded in the office of the accused shows that demand of bribe in clear words and place of acceptance was to be fixed later on as he had taken the mobile phone number of Katyal,” said the court.

It said that report regarding identification of voices in the recording as well as specimen recording are proved as beyond reasonable doubts as being of the accused and complainants.