By IANS,
Shillong : Convicted former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) official L.R. Mitran has termed her four years’ rigorous imprisonment as “a lifetime experience”.
A Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Meghalaya Monday convicted Mitran, former Central Excise commissioner of the North East, for accepting a bribe of Rs.8 lakh — Rs.five lakh in cash and a vehicle.
Special Judge S.R. Sen also imposed a fine of Rs.20,000 on her.
“I am not worried. It is a lifetime experience. But people who should also be inside the locker are not,” Mitran told reporters reacting to the judgment.
The CBI had registered a case against the IRS official Jan 7, 1999, under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In 1996, Mitran passed an “adjudication order” in favour of Kolkata-based company M/s Kitply Industries by reducing its excise duty dues from Rs.36 crore to Rs.9 crore.
The directorate general (anti-evasion) detected that the company evaded excise duty of Rs.27 crore.
The 70-year-old retired official had also been accused of setting up a trust in the name of her mother and family members and accepting a donation of Rs.5 lakh and a vehicle in the name of the trust.
CBI legal prosecutor V.K. Jindal said the judgment came after 30 witnesses and hundreds of official documents were examined by the court.
“Mitran tried to secure a Special Leave Petition from the Supreme Court ever since the trial against her started in 2002,” Jindal said.
However, the Supreme Court and the Gauhati High Court rejected her leave petition.
Mitran was convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act. However, Jindal said, Mitran can appeal in the high court for bail.