New Delhi: A 48-year-old DTC employee has been sentenced to four years in jail by a Delhi court for taking Rs 2,000 as bribe from a man, promising him a job of driver in the state public transport.
Special CBI Judge PS Teji awarded four-year rigorous imprisonment to Santok Dass saying "corruption by public servants has become a gigantic problem".
"Corruption has spread everywhere and no facet of public activity has been left unaffected by the sting of corruption.
"It has deep and pervasive impact on the functioning of the entire country and large-scale corruption retards the national building activities and everyone has to suffer on that count," the judge said, while also imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 on Dass.
Dass was arrested by the CBI on a complaint by one Narender Tyagi, who worked as a temporary driver with DTC during 2005-06, but had been turned out of job for absence from work for a month due to his father`s illness.
The DTC later began recruiting drivers on short-term basis later in August 2007, when Tyagi went to apply for it and happened to meet Dass, then working as conductor at East Vinod Nagar depot.
Dass demanded Rs 3,000 from Tyagi for getting his name approved as driver, but the latter lodged a complaint with the CBI, leading to Dass` arrest in a trap.
Sending Dass to jail, the judge said "corruption is corroding our country like cancerous lymph nodes, the vital veins of the body politics, social fabric of efficiency in the public service and demoralising the honest officers."
PTI
