CHENNAI: A police inspector has been sentenced to two years in jail and to pay a fine of `2000 for forcing a complainant to pay a bribe of `10 lakh when the officer was serving in crime branch of Chennai Police in 2010. B Senthil Kumar was booked on corruption charges after an internal enquiry by a senior officer found he had forced one V Selvam to pay the bribe.
According to prosecution, the official abused his authority and made Selvam deposit the bribe in the account of his father-in-law. The official was handling a cheating case filed by Selvam against one Ramamoorthy as the latter deferred payment to the tune of `1.59 cr relating to a business transaction.
However, the accused had come forward to transfer a property in lieu of pending sum. The inspector was allegedly stalling the transfer of the property demanding Selvam to pay him `30 lakh.
Selvam deposited `10 lakh in the bank account of Senthil Kumar’s father-in-law. He subsequently filed a complaint with Chennai police commissioner alleging that Senthil Kumar had received the bribe from him and also insisting him to pay `20 lakh more.
An Additional Commissioner of Police conducted internal enquiry and found that the financial transactions had indeed taken place.
Based on the report, Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption booked Senthil Kumar and his father-in-law M Brahmanandam, a retired postal department employee, under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The father-in-law was later discharged from the case by the trial court in 2015.
Defence counsel argued that the complainant had filed a false complaint against the police inspector since the officer was preventing Selvam grabbing a property. He argued that Selvam was trying to grab a property of a close relative of the accused in the cheating case.
Regarding bank transactions, counsel argued that it pertained to a loan taken by police inspector’s father in-law from Selvam.
J Omprakash, Judge of Special Court dealing Prevention of Corruption Act Cases, said the prosecution had proved the charges against Senthil Kumar beyond doubt.