Two Customs and Central Excise officers,including a Superintendent,have been sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment in a bribery case by a special CBI court in Haryana. T R Prabhakar,Superintendent,and B S Panwar,Inspector of Central Excise and Customs were also fined Rs 11,000 each. The duo were found guilty under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (PCA) Act. Both the accused were caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs five thousand from a complainant in lieu of issuing Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT) certificate to him which was required for duty drawback on some exported goods in July 2002,a CBI spokesperson said. Both the officials were posted in Panipat when they were caught taking bribe by the agency. The agency later filed a chargesheet in the case at the special CBI court in Ambala in December 2002 under various sections of the PCA Act. According to the spokesperson,the prosecution also examined 12 witnesses in the case.
