Mysuru: A City Court has sentenced an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) of the Zilla Panchayat (ZP), who was caught while receiving a bribe of Rs.1 lakh, to 11 years jail and has imposed a fine of Rs.1.35 lakh on him.

The AEE, who has been sentenced, is J.E. Manohar of the Rural Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Division in the ZP.

On Mar.6, 2015, Manohar was caught by the Lokayukta Police, while he was accepting a bribe of Rs.1 lakh from Jagadish, a First Class Contractor of K.R. Nagar, towards the release of the pending amount of Rs.3,99,394 pertaining to drinking water supply works undertaken by him (Jagadish).

Contractor Jagadish, who had undertaken the works at Kowlanahalli village in Periyapatna taluk at a cost of Rs.8 lakh, had produced a bill for the payment of the balance amount after the completion of the works.

When Jagadish met AEE Manohar and sought the payment for the bill, Manohar asked Rs.1.5 lakh bribe to release the money and later demanded Rs.1 lakh bribe following which Jagadish lodged a complaint with Lokayukta Police.

Based on the complaint, Lokayukta Inspector Mathew Thomas and staff Gopikrishna and Suresh Kumar caught Manohar while he was accepting the bribe from Contractor Jagadish. The Lokayukta Police, after conducting investigations, had submitted a charge-sheet to the Court.

City’s Third District and Sessions Court Judge Bharat Kumar, who is also the Special Lokayukta Judge, heard the arguments, found Engineer Manohar guilty and sentenced him to five year imprisonment and a fine of Rs.60,000 under Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act and six years imprisonment and a fine of Rs.75,000 under Section 13(1) (D).

Karnataka Lokayukta Special Prosecutor Kaliyanda Muthamma Poonacha argued on behalf of the Government.