Teacher gets four years of rigorous imprisonment for taking bribe in Barwani

Barwani: A teacher was sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment by the first additional sessions court in Barwani for accepting a bribe and a fine of Rs 5000 was also imposed on him.Judge Chandan Singh Chauhan found the accused, Punta Barde, a resident of village Dhavali, guilty under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. According to the prosecution, complainant Ramesh Khote, an assistant teacher posted at a govt primary school at Khatty Faliya in Barwani district, was appointed as a contract teacher Class-III in 2006. In April 2015, he was merged into the assistant teacher cadre and became entitled to arrears of revised pay scale, which was supposed to be paid from Sendhwa janpad panchayat. When the arrears were not paid, Khote approached Barde, who was handling salary-related work at the cluster centre. Barde allegedly demanded Rs 4000 bribe, which was 10 percent of the arrears amount of around Rs 40,000, from Khote. Later, Khote lodged a complaint with Lokayukta police.After verifying the complaint, the Lokayukta police registered a case and laid a trap. On Nov 28, 2015, the accused was caught red-handed while accepting Rs 4000 bribe.