In a boost to the State Vigilance, the Orissa High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed by a Government engineer challenging his conviction and sentencing by the Special Judge (Vigilance), Berhampur in a corruption case.
The single judge bench of Justice B K Mishra dismissed the petition of former assistant engineer of Khariar Irrigation sub-division Biswajit Patnaik and observed that corruption at any level does not deserve either sympathy or leniency.
Patnaik had been convicted of demanding and taking a bribe of `2,000 from a contractor, Hemant Kumar Bisoi, for recommending the passage of the final bill in lieu of the work undertaken by the latter to the Irrigation Division authorities.
On Bisoi’s complaint, the Jeypore Vigilance officials had laid a trap on August 29, 1997 and caught him red-handed with the chemically treated currency notes.
The Special Judge Vigilance, Berhampur convicted him of the offence and then sentenced him to one year imprisonment and concurrent six months under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Patnaik, however, filed an appeal in the High Court against the conviction stating that he had been framed and the money had been forcibly thrust into his pocket to stage the arrest.
Vigilance counsel Suraj Mohanty contested the appeal stating that there was every evidence that he had demanded and taken the bribe.
When Patnaik was caught with the bribe, he had told the Vigilance officers that Bisoi had only returned a loan of ` 2,000.
Considering the facts of the case, Justice B K Mishra upheld the judgment of the Vigilance court.