Hang the corrupt, fumes Supreme Court

Hang the corrupt, fumes Supreme Court
[8 Mar, 2007 0251hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Hang_the_corrupt_fumes_Supreme_Court/articleshow/1733842.cms

NEW DELHI: Bihar's fodder scam case may be stuck in the tortuous legal process but the multi-crore loot of public money involving influential politicians still manages to get the judiciary's goat.

This was evident when the bail petition of one of the government officials convicted in the case came up before the Supreme Court.

"Everyone wants to loot this country. The only deterrent is to hang a few corrupt persons from the lamp post," said a Bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and Markandey Katju, which was hearing a bail petition filed by fodder scam accused Braj Bhushan Prasad, convicted by the trial court.

Justice Katju, from whom the remarks flowed, was aware of the limitation of the court in view of the rule of law that governed the country. "The law does not permit us to do it, but otherwise we would prefer to hang the corrupt," he said.

To lessen the ire of the Bench against his client, counsel R Singh said that Prasad was a mere pawn in the big game as he was only a budget accounts officer.

It failed to impress the court. Justice Katju continued in the same vein and said that as budget accounts officer, he was supposed to keep track of the spending but he had abdicated his duties as alleged by the prosecution.

Such was the anger of the Bench that it not only dismissed Prasad's bail plea but refused to accede to his request for a direction to the Jharkhand High Court for early disposal of his appeal against conviction in the fodder scam case.

Bhushan was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by a special court in Jharkhand.