A senior Income Tax official in Thane has been jailed for bribery, highlighting the ongoing efforts to combat corruption and its detrimental effects on India's economic development.
A senior tax assistant in the Income Tax department was sentenced to six months in jail and fined Rs 4000 in a bribery case by a special CBI court in Thane.
Deepak Kumar Ram Babu was held guilty under Prevention of Corruption Act by special judge DS Deshmukh.
Babu was accused of seeking a bribe of Rs 1500 to process a TDS refund in June 2016. The man, who later approached the Central Bureau of Investigations anti-corruption branch, was seeking a TDS refund of Rs 57,469 on behalf of his father, whose shop in Roha in neighbouring Raigad had been acquired by the government.
Ten witnesses were examined during the trial.
In his order of Wednesday, judge Deshmukh said, "This is systematic corruption in which the public money is also involved and it has deep and pervasive impact on the functioning of the entire country. Large-scale corruption retards the nation building activities and everyone has to suffer on that count."
While the prosecution sought maximum punishment citing the impact of economic offences on society, the court considered the accused's family background and the fact that he had faced trial for 10 years before sentencing him to six months in jail.