Corruption major roadblock in India's development: Court

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) A Delhi court Friday observed while punishing six persons, including a bank manager, that corruption was a major roadblock in India's development.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge V.K. Maheshwari said: "Corruption is considered to be one of the major road-blocks in India's journey from a developing to a developed economy."

The court added further that if scams which highlighted the politician-bureaucratic-corporate nexus were not checked, they could have a far reaching impact. It said that the need of the hour was to have a comprehensive framework that would curtail corruption.

The court stated all this while convicting assistant regional manager, Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) P.K. Gupta along with Rakesh Sharma and Rajesh Grover to three years rigorous imprisonment. The court also slapped fines to the tune of Rs.1,10,000 on Gupta and Rs.1,40,000 on Sharma and Grover.

The court also awarded two years jail to Upender Kumar Singh, Ashwani Dhingra and Dal Bahadur Singh.

Conducting public prosecutor Brijesh Shukla told the court that Sharma with Gupta and others had entered into a criminal conspiracy in 1998 to cheat the OBC. He added that the accused Gupta caused pecuniary advantage to the private persons by abusing his official position as a public servant and caused a wrongful loss to the extent of Rs.83.85 lakh to the bank.