MARCH 23, 2022

By Vijay Kumar

IN a Press Release yesterday by CBI, it was informed that:

CBI has conducted searches at 5 locations at the premises of accused situated in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in connection with bribery case against the accused including Senior Intelligence Officer, DGGI, Ghaziabad in which a bribe amount of Rs. 60 Lakh as first instalment on behalf of the said public servant exchanged hands yesterday. During searches at the premises of Senior Intelligence Officer a sum of Rs. 28 Lakh(approx) was recovered. Searches also led to recovery of incriminating documents.

CBI had registered a case on complaint against the accused on the allegations of demanding bribe. It was further alleged that the accused demanded bribe of Rs. One Crore through Private Persons/touts for showing official favour to Complainant's father in a case at DGGI, Ghaziabad.

It may be stated that a private person who accepted the bribe on behalf of public servant was arrested from the spot and is being produced today before the Competent Court at Delhi. It may also be clarified that the arrest of Senior Intelligence Officer was deferred due to his medical condition and a view in this regard will be taken depending on his medical condition.

The Senior Intelligence Officer is not yet arrested due to his medical condition. What was the medical condition? Newspapers reported that when the arrest proceeding was going on at the Rohini home of the officer, he jumped out of his house injuring himself!

Has GST become so terrible that a bribe of one crore could be demanded and surprisingly even agreed to be paid?Why should a taxpayer agree to pay one crore rupees to an officer? What are the stakes and what are our safeguards? Does an officer at the bottom of the hierarchy have the power to shower so much benevolence on a taxpayer that he is ready to pay a bribe of one crore rupees?

Some twelve years ago in my column, TIOL-DDT 1518 30.12.2010 , I wrote

Income Tax - Rs. 42,000 Bribe for a Refund of Rs. 90,000

The Bribe barometer has gone beyond the Mercury levels. A greedy Tax Assistant of the Income Tax Department demanded a bribe of Rs 42,000 to provide a refund of Rs 90,000 to a businessman. The amount of bribe was of course negotiable and finally settled at a  reasonable  figure of Rs. 20,000. A first installment of Rs. 6000 was negotiated.Only the enterprising babu did not visualize the possibility of an inconvenient CBI. The CBI laid a trap and caught him red handed.

Fifteen years ago, in TIOL-DDT 675 09.08.2007 , I wrote:

Inflation catches up with corruption - CBI arrests two Central Excise inspectors with bribe of two lakhs of rupees.

The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested two Inspectors of Central Excise posted at Janakpuri, New Delhi, for demanding and accepting bribe of Rs. Two lakhs as first instalment for a total bribe of Rs. five lakhs demanded from the owner of a factory manufacturing VCD and DVDs at Mayapuri, New Delhi. On 7.8.2007, both the Inspectors demanded Rs. five lakhs bribe from the complainant and threatened him that unless their demand is met, he would be booked under the Excise Act. Finally, it was agreed that Rs. Two lakh has to be paid as first instalment. One of the Inspectors, who came to collect the first instalment of Rs. Two lakh was caught red-handed by a CBI team and the bribe money was recovered from him. The other Inspector was subsequently arrested by CBI for his involvement in the demand of bribe.

I also wrote,

China enjoys anti-corruption game - kill and torture the corrupt and enter a corruption free Paradise

An online game in China that allows players to eradicate corrupt officials has proved so popular its website has crashed. Since its launch a few days ago, the game, "Incorruptible Fighter", is reported to have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. The game was devised by a regional government in east China to highlight the problems of corrupt officialdom.

"Incorruptible Fighter" allow players to get ahead by killing and torturing corrupt officials, while assisting the upstanding ones. Along the way, they are led through a series of moral challenges before entering a corruption-free paradise.

The game appeared to have become a victim of its own success. A note on the site said it had crashed due to overwhelming demand.

From TIOL-DDT 1915 03.08.2012 ,

The 3 o'clock habit Sharing the Booty!

It seems in Philippines they have an organised system called the  3 o'clock habit.  Every Friday, Customs employees gather at 3pm in the Customs Zone and share the week's booty/loot. It seems the money amounts to billions and even the Commissioner gets a share.

Corruption and Bribery: The Kaushik View : In a 1983 paper, Kaushik Basu, the former Economic Advisor stated , “Human ingenuity is so great that no matter how many plugs we put in to stop corruption, people will almost invariably find a way around it.”

While sentencing a Superintendent Lallan Ojha to five years imprisonment, a Delhi CBI Court observed,

"This is a sordid story where victimized businessmen were triply suffered. First, due to illegal raid; second, due to having paid money to public servants without doing any illegality in the business and, third, having been prosecuted."

Success Story of an Industrialist

I have a personal story of an industrialist. Let us see it in his own words: -

I was born in a small village but had the good fortune of good college and university education. At that time, fifty years ago, the choice of youngsters in life was either agriculture, if you were not good at studies or a government job if you were good. After a brilliant academic march, I got a job in a premier PSU. After working there for about fifteen years, strokes of patriotism hit me and I decided that I should be doing something for my village, rather than roaming around the world as a PSU executive. My colleagues thought I was insane and/or foolish and told me that I could become the CMD of the PSU. (which exalted status three of my juniors attained.) I quit the job and came back to my village to start a small factory with capital from friends and relatives and my own savings. Very soon, I realised that finding oil was far easier than getting through the maze of the omnipotent and omnipresent government. Nothing moved unless you bribed the smallest to the very big. And how do you bribe? Where do you get the unaccounted money to bribe the babus and netas? I had to generate black money. Soon I became an expert in dealing with and handling the powers. My colleague entrepreneurs made me their leader and used my services as a trouble-shooter. I would never criticise or find fault with any government officer or minister. I would fawn before the lowest government functionary and shower praises even when they do what is required of them after I satisfied them. I am considered successful and am friends with many mighty government servants. I have always worked to the satisfaction of these powerful servants.

I am seventy now. Looking back, I regret the days and nights spent in the corridors struggling to get whatever was legally my right. Unfortunately, both my sons have succeeded me in this business. I only hope they have a better life.

Will online registration eliminate corruption? - Service Tax Inspector sentenced to seven years imprisonment

TIOL-DDT 2939 28 09 2016

The   Special CBI Court, Dehradun on Saturday sentenced a young Inspector of Service Tax to seven years rigorous imprisonment. The charge against him was that:

He while posted and functioning as Inspector Service Tax, Service Tax Division, Roorkee (Haridwar) Uttarakhand on 30.04.15 demanded an illegal gratification of Rs. 3500/- from Shri xxx New Adarsh Nagar, Roorkee District Haridwar for registration of firm xxxx Labour Contractor and he asked the complainant on 5.5.15 to come to his office at Roorkee on 06.05.15 where he demanded Rs. 3,500/- as bribe by writing on a sheet of white paper for verification of the documents relating to the above firm and he was caught red handed on 06.05.15 by CBI team in presence of two independent witnesses for demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs. 3500/- as illegal gratification other than legal remuneration as motive for doing an official act as mentioned above and he thus committed an offence punishable u/s 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

It was pleaded on his behalf that he was young and so the least possible punishment be given, but the Court was not impressed. The Judge quoted a Supreme Court judgement,  

"The court will be failing in its duty if appropriate punishment is not awarded for a crime which has been committed not only against the individual victim but also against the society to which the criminal and the victim belong. The punishment to be awarded for a crime must not be irrelevant but it should conform to and be consistent with the atrocity and brutality with which the crime has been perpetrated, the enormity of the crime warranting public abhorrence and it should "respond to the society's cry for justice against the criminal"

And he sent the Inspector to a jail term of seven years with a fine of Rs.20,000. It is very difficult to become an Inspector but see how easy it is to blow it up. He would get a salary of about 50,000 rupees, but for a sum of Rs.3,500, he will lose his job and spend the next twenty years pursuing this case.

Online transactions were expected to bring down corruption, but registration online and bribery offline appear to be the norm.

Registration of nearly a crore of assessees under GST is to open soon. Big Business?

Until Next week