Gurgaon: A city court convicted a retired Haryana govt officer in a bribery case and sentenced him to five years rigorous imprisonment. Dalbir Singh, senior manager at Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 on the last day of his service to clear a contractor’s pending payment file in 2021.Additional sessions judge Puneet Sehgal, while convicting Singh under Prevention of Corruption Act, said bribery by public servants corrodes governance and erodes civic trust. “Culpability is not mitigated simply because the accused was at the end of service tenure,” the court said.Public prosecutor Sumit Saini told the court that complainant Ajit Kumar had executed contractual work for HSIIDC and was owed about Rs 4.25 lakh. The prosecution said Bhatti demanded Rs 10,000 to send the file for clearance on Sept 29, 2021, the day he retired.After a written complaint, the vigilance wing organised a trap, deployed a shadow witness, conducted pre-trap proceedings, noted serial numbers of the currency notes, and apprehended Bhatti immediately after he received the money. The court said the recovery was documented through seizure memos and supported by consistent testimonies of the complainant and the trap team.The case was registered on Sept 30, 2021, under Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act.The court also noted that Bhatti did not lead any defence evidence to rebut the prosecution case. He denied the allegations but offered no credible explanation for the incriminating circumstances. The judge held that mere denial could not displace a case supported by an unbroken chain of evidence, including proof of demand and acceptance, which are essential ingredients of the offence.The prosecution argued that demanding a bribe on the verge of retirement showed deliberate misuse of official position and that the trap proceedings were conducted in accordance with law. The defence counsel claimed that the complainant had reasons to fabricate the allegations, but the court found the assertions unsupported and insufficient against corroborated official testimony.The court said corruption by public servants cannot be condoned, regardless of tenure or impending retirement. It held that the shadow witness account, recovery of marked currency, and the investigating officer’s testimony formed a coherent narrative establishing Bhatti’s culpability.
