A staffer from the Navi Mumbai Provident Fund (PF) office was given a three-year jail term by a special CBI court for receiving a bribe of Rs. 3 lakh from a business.
After finding Kallakuri Vijay Ramarao (52) guilty of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Special Judge (CBI) Amit M Shete sentenced him to three years in jail and levied a fine of Rs 50,000.
Another defendant, who was also on trial for aiding and abetting the crime, was also cleared by the court. On Friday, a copy of the order that was approved on September 8 was made accessible.
An infrastructure company from Vashi was given a notice and scheduled for a hearing in July 2008 because it had not submitted its PF returns from 2002, according to Special Public Prosecutor Om Prakash Chauhan.
The accused told the complainant, who is the firm’s representative, when they met at the Vashi PF office that the business would face a penalty of Rs. 10 lakh, with the potential for a maximum of Rs. 50 lakh.
After talks, the price was reduced from the accused’s initial demand of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.
A complaint was then made to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which set up a trap and arrested the accused while taking the bribe money on August 22, 2008, according to information given to the court.
According to CBI court officer Arun Satpute, five prosecution witnesses were questioned in order to substantiate the accusations against the defendant.