Drug control officers, tout get three years jail in bribery case

Trichy: A Trichy court on Thursday convicted and sentenced three people including two officers of the drugs control office of Trichy region to three years imprisonment for their involvement in a 2008 bribery case. The special court for Prevention of Corruption Act convicted the former assistant director of drugs control K Parthiban, 62, former senior drug inspector R Sivapunniyam, 70, and an employee of a private pharmacy R Sekar, 42, of Thillai Nagar for demanding and receiving 7,000 from P Anbarasu of Woraiyur to issue licence for a wholesale medical store. Deputy superintendent of police (DSP), G Manikandan of DVAC, Trichy said that Anbarasu had approached the officers on May 15, 2008 to obtain a licence to operate the medical store in Woraiyur. Parthiban and Sivapunniyam demanded 5,000 and 2,000 respectively through the intermediary Sekar for processing and recommending for licence. So, he lodged a complaint with the DVAC, Trichy. They were caught red-handed on May 19, 2008.The special judge R Karthikeyan sentenced Parthiban and Sivapunniyam to three years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of 10,000 for the offence under Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the PC Act.Additionally, they have each been sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of 10,000 for the offence under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. In case of non-payment of the fine, both individuals will have to undergo an additional six months of simple imprisonment on both the counts. The sentences will run concurrently.Sekar has been sentenced to undergo three years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of 10,000 for the offence under Section 12 of the PC Act. Similarly, if he fails to pay the fine, he will face an additional six months of simple imprisonment. Since the sentence was limited to three years of imprisonment, they were allowed to appeal before the Madras high court.
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