By IANS,
New Delhi: A CBI special court here has awarded four years jail term to an officer of the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology in a 2008 forgery case. A penalty of Rs.1 lakh was also slapped on the convict.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Sanjeev Jain, in a recent verdict, awarded the sentence to Ram Krishna Mishra, 44, who was a senior scientific officer and assistant director in the central government organisation at the time of committing the offence
“In a democratic society, corruption by a public servant is most serious and does not deserve any leniency,” the court said and slapped a fine of Rs.1 lakh on the convict.
The court said that Mishra, by using forged bills knowingly, made an attempt to cheat the commission.
The court held him guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act and penal provisions for forgery and cheating.
“Keeping in view the incriminating and mitigating circumstances, the nature and gravity of the offence and the consequences of the offence committed by the convict, in my opinion the convict does not deserve undue sympathy,” the court said.
The commission organises training seminars and workshops in different parts of the country to propagate technical terminology in Hindi and other languages.
Mishra’s organisation held a seminar Jan 22-23, 2008 in Mysore after which he presented the false bills, the CBI said.
The CBI filed the chargesheet against Mishra June 24, 2010 alleging that he fraudulently attempted to claim Rs.87,291 by submitting false and forged bills in the name of 14 people who had not participated in the seminar.