Accused didn’t touch cash during trap operation, but verified bribe demand itself constitutes a completed criminal act, says Mumbai court | Mumbai News

Mumbai: The accused never physically handled the cash during the trap operation, but the verified bribe demand itself — audio evidence — constituted a completed criminal act, a special court convicted and sentenced a 62-year-old female senior electrical inspector to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for demanding Rs 5 lakh to grant electrical charging permissions for the 50-storey Ahuja Towers in Prabhadevi in 2014.While the accused, Sandhya Pol, prayed for leniency citing her age and health, the judge noted the social impact of the crime. “The offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act is an offence against the society. Moreover, in the present case, it is committed by a woman holding a responsible official post. Such facts essentially enhances gravity of the offence as the fact recognises that the particular section of society is also heading towards the corrupt practices,” special judge Shayana Patil said. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on Pol.Pol’s co-accused, junior clerk Ajit Kadam, was acquitted as the prosecution failed to prove he was part of the conspiracy.In 2014, Sulbha Nadkarni, the owner of an engineering firm, applied for a “high-rise charging” NOC for Ahuja Towers. Pol demanded Rs 5,000 per floor for the 50-storey building to grant the permission.The complainant, Sulbha’s husband Atul, reported the demand to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). After an initial failed attempt, ACB recorded a conversation between Atul and Pol on Nov 5, 2014, which verified the bribe demand. On tape, Pol was heard comparing her bribe rates to other officials and insisting that the payment was necessary because the building sat in a “special zone”.A trap was planned for Nov 7, 2014, with Rs 5 lakh — mostly dummy notes — but Pol did not show up at her office.On Nov 17, 2014, Atul brought the money to Pol’s office. When he offered it, Pol directed him to give it to Kadam. He refused to touch the bag and gestured for the complainant to leave it on a chair in an adjacent cabin. ACB officials moved in after the money was dropped, but no traces of anthracene powder, used to mark bait money, were found on the hands of either Pol or Kadam, as neither had handled the cash. Despite this, based on the recorded conversations and the sequence of events, an FIR was lodged against Pol under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.The judge found the audio evidence and the deposition of the complainant’s wife to be key.While the defence argued the accused was falsely implicated, the judge noted that the recordings captured Pol’s “habitual approach” to corruption. “The prosecution has established that the accused has attempted to obtain illegal gratification…towards issuing the charging permission which was the part of her official duty. Such attempt to obtain illegal gratification was the demand for bribe,” the judge said.