Photograph used for representational purposes only
The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Tiruvallur has convicted and sentenced a junior engineer who was suspended from Tangedco, to three years of imprisonment for receiving a bribe of ₹4,000 from an individual applying for a single-phase service connection.
Police said the complainant, M. Janarthana Rao, a resident of Kannadapalayam, Thirumullaivoyal, had applied for a single-phase EB service connection for his 1,200 sq.ft., vacant plot of land located in Bhavani Nagar, Ayappakkam on April 1, 2011, and remitted fees of ₹1,300 on at the Ayapakkam Electricity Board office.
Two months later, the complainant approached the Junior Engineer to enquire about the status of his new service connection application. S. Dhanasekaran, junior engineer at Ayapakkam, Ambattur Division initially demanded ₹6,000 as a bribe to process the application. The complainant met the Junior Engineer (JE) the next day and explained his inability to pay the amount, and so, the JE reduced the amount to ₹4,000 and asked him to come and meet him at his office the next day with the money.
As the complainant was unwilling to pay the bribe, he lodged a complaint at the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption’s (DVAC) office, and based on this, a case was registered by DVAC. The officers of the DVAC caught Mr. Dhanasekaran red-handed on July 15, 2011 while he was accepting the ₹4,000 at his office from the complainant.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Tiruvallur, convicted the suspended JE and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years. The convict should pay a fine of ₹20,000 and, if he fails to do so, he will have to undergo a further period of simple imprisonment for three months, the magistrate ordered.