The court also convicted the 46-year-old official under Section 7 of the PC Act. (Representational)

A Delhi court has sentenced an official of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to four years in jail for demanding bribe from his colleague to grant him the promotion.

Special CBI Judge Anil Kumar Sisodia convicted Sanjeev Kumar, who was working as the assistant commissioner in north MCD, under Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. The section deals with offence of criminal misconduct by a public servant.

The court also convicted the 46-year-old official under Section 7 of the PC Act, which deals with offence of public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act.

"I am of the considered opinion that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubts. Accordingly, the accused is convicted for the charged offences under section 7 of PC Act and Section 13 (2) read with section 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988," the judge said.

He has also imposed a fine of Rs 40,000 on Sanjeev.

The convict sought leniency on the ground that he has three children and aging parents dependent upon him for their livelihood.

The court said, "In the case in hand, the convict is a government servant and what he was found indulged in corruption. However, there are no aggravating circumstances against the convict as he is neither a previous convict nor he is involved in any other criminal case. The convict has three children and aged parents dependent upon him for their livelihood."

In 2016, Sanjeev, who used to work as the assistant commissioner of the general branch at the north MCD, had offered to promote his colleague Sunil Kumar as the licensing inspector from bill clerk and demanded a bribe of Rs 50,000 for it, according to a complaint.

When Sunil refused to pay the bribe, Sanjeev started harassing him and threatened to send him out of the general branch if he did not fulfill the demand, the complaint had claimed.

Following this, Sunil informed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which laid a trap and caught Sanjeev red-handed while accepting money from the complainant.

During the trial, Sanjeev had claimed that the money was part of the repayment of the loan he had given to the complainant.

The court, however, said since Sanjeev was senior to the complainant and had been posted in the general branch three months prior to the incident and that too on deputation, it appeared highly improbable that Sunil would have asked the loan from him instead of his colleagues or seniors who were permanent employees of north MCD.