The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday upheld the conviction of former parcel clerk Kali Shankar Dhobi in a case involving the acceptance of a Rs 100 bribe at Ranchi’s Hatia Railway Station in 1995.
The case that began in 1995 remained tied up in legal proceedings for nearly 31 years.
Kali Shankar Dhobi had already lost his railway job following his conviction in the case. A case was subsequently registered against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Following the CBI’s action, the matter went to a special court. The sentences under both sections were to run concurrently. Kali Shankar filed an appeal in the Jharkhand High Court against the trial court’s verdict. Case Dragged On For Over Two Decades In The High Court Too After the trial court’s verdict, the case moved to the High Court, but the proceedings there also took more than two decades to conclude. The case was heard in the court of Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava. After hearing arguments from both sides, the High Court upheld the trial court’s conviction. However, the High Court reduced Kali Shankar Dhobi’s sentence. The court took into account the prolonged duration of the case, his advanced age, and his ill health. Both sentences will run concurrently, meaning Kali Shankar Dhobi will have to serve a maximum of one year in prison. It was also submitted to the High Court that he had no prior criminal record and this was his first offense. Despite these circumstances, however, the court did not set aside his conviction.
After a trial lasting nearly nine years, the special court convicted Kali Shankar Dhobi in 2004. The special court sentenced him to one year in prison and a fine of Rs 4,000 under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Additionally, he was sentenced to one and a half years in prison and a fine of Rs 6,000 under Section 13(2). The case that began in 1995 remained tied up in legal proceedings for nearly 31 years. The court reduced the one-year sentence under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act to six months. Meanwhile, the one-and-a-half-year sentence under Section 13(2) was reduced to one year.
