Bringing the curtains down on a seventeen-year-old corruption case, the Special Judge Anti-Corruption Court Pulwama, Monday, convicted former Girdawar, Ghulam Hassan Kumar of Tarigam Devbug village of South Kashmir’s Kulgam, for demanding and accepting bribe money in 2008.
The court sentenced him to three years and six months of simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of twenty thousand rupees under the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act. In default of the fine, he will have to undergo an additional three months of simple imprisonment. He was further awarded one year of simple imprisonment and a fine of ten thousand rupees under Section 161 of the Ranbir Penal Code, with another one month of simple imprisonment in case of default. The judge ordered that both punishments shall run concurrently.
The conviction is rooted in a complaint lodged on June 16, 2008, by Mohammad Yousuf Mir of Poterwal, Shopian, who had alleged that the accused, then posted as Girdawar in Keegam Circle, was demanding money for the demarcation of his land. Mir approached the Vigilance Organization Kashmir, now known as the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and a trap was swiftly laid. Kumar was caught red-handed at Sindu Shirmal in Shopian while receiving two thousand rupees in marked currency notes inside the office of a Patwari. The trap team immediately recovered the tainted money from his pocket, and hand wash and pocket wash tests confirmed the presence of phenolphthalein powder used to mark the bribe notes.
The case as per the news agency Kashmir News Trust went through a lengthy trial process during which twelve prosecution witnesses, including the complainant, independent officials, members of the trap team, and scientific experts, testified before the court. Their evidence consistently pointed to the accused having demanded and accepted the bribe. The forensic examination of the seized samples further corroborated the prosecution’s version.
After examining the record and weighing the testimonies, the court concluded that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. In his judgment, Special Judge Dr Noor Mohammad Mir held that the former revenue officer had misused his official position to seek illegal gratification and was apprehended in the act. [KNT]
