Taken from Times of India Hyderabad Edition dated 05.02.2009.
Patna: A court here sentenced a 75-year-old doctor to jail for accepting 25 rupees (USD 0.50) as bribe nearly a quarter of a century ago, officials said on Wednesday.
The police had arrested Balgovind Prasad for accepting 25 rupees (USD 0.50) from a sweeper in 1985 for issuing a fake medical certificate.
The case dragged on for years and Prasad was convicted in 1992 and given a one-year jail term. However, he was freed after he appealed against the sentence. On Tuesday, a higher court in Bihar reduced the one-year term to three months, saying the bribe amount was too small, but directed the police to take Prasad into custody as he was guilty of the crime.
“The case was dragging and the bribe money was too small, so Prasad thought he would get a reprieve from the court,” prosecution lawyer Vipin Kumar Sinha told reporters after the verdict. “But all the charges has been proved against him.” REUTERS
I bet the lawyers fees and time spent in running between courts would be much higher than the bribe amount. The Government was actually spending more money in terms of court machinery and time in getting this case prosecuted. Why can't they just slap a fine or throw him into jail for a couple of days as punishment instead of wasting tax payers money in the name of justice and by the way "Justice delayed is Justice denied".
2 comments:
Well, if the courts didn't have their day, they wouldn't make their dollar. It's cases like these that get on my nerves.
Well said....thanks for dropping by...
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