By IANS,
New Delhi: A former woman councillor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) facing contempt of court charges and a fine of over Rs.1 lakh got a reprieve after the Delhi High Court accepted her apology Friday.
A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar accepted the apology by Sadhana Sharma, ex-councillor from Burari, and reduced the fine to Rs.10,000. It asked her to deposit the amount within one week.
Sharma was facing contempt charges as it was found that she lied on oath and levelled unsubstantiated allegations, sending both the court and Delhi Police on a wild goose chase for two years.
The court took her claims so seriously it even appointed a retired judge as court commissioner to probe the allegations against MCD.
The court had then imposed a fine of Rs.1.5 lakh on her for misleading the court by filing a public interest petition alleging corruption against officials of the civic agency without being able to prove any of these.
Sharma had filed a PIL accusing MCD officials of being involved in corruption in construction of roads in the city. She first claimed the scam involved Rs.120 crore, then scaled down the figure to Rs.1.2 crore, claiming a clerical mistake had made 1.2 look like 120. She failed to back up her second allegation with any evidence.