Corruption if not tackled will lead to death of society: Court

A Delhi court has sentenced two public servants and three others, convicted in one of the seven National Insurance Company (NIC) scam cases, to four years rigorous imprisonment saying "corruption, if not tackled will lead to death of society by continuous debilitation."

New Delhi: A Delhi court has sentenced two public servants and three others, convicted in one of the seven National Insurance Company (NIC) scam cases, to four years rigorous imprisonment saying "corruption, if not tackled will lead to death of society by continuous debilitation."

Special CBI Judge Kanwal Jeet Arora sentenced G C Gupta and V P Pandhi, the then assistant managers at NIC who have been held guilty in the company's other cases as well, saying that corruption affects the "efficient functioning of any economic system" and "discourages reliance on merit as a means to success".

"Corruption, if not tackled will lead to death of society by continuous debilitation," the judge said, while also sentencing three private individuals--Munish Yadav, Arvind Kumar Sharma and P C Mohan.

All the five persons were convicted on October 16 for hatching a conspiracy leading to a loss of Rs 2,32,000 to NIC by forging papers to claim a marine policy (an insurance policy meant for goods to be transported between two places) in 1997-98.

The court had convicted Gupta, Pandhi, Yadav, Sharma and Mohan under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with section 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine forged document) of IPC and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

Gupta and Pandhi were also convicted under sections of PCA separately while Munish Yadav and Sharma were convicted for offences under section 420 and 471 of IPC.

One accused K V Juneja was acquitted of all the charges against him and proceedings against another accused Raj Pal Yadav abated after he died during the trial.

In its 26-page order on sentence, the court said, "Public servants entrusted with the domain over public money, are expected to deal with the same with utmost propriety and transparency, in order to keep the economic equilibrium of the society in place."

The court also slapped a fine of Rs 75,000 on Gupta, Pandhi, Sharma and Mohan, while Rs 4.75 lakh fine was imposed on Yadav for being the main conspirator.

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