Three months after the special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court convicted former Deputy Inspector General of Maharashtra police AK Jain in a bribery case, the court on Thursday convicted him and his wife in a disproportionate assets case and sentenced them to three years' imprisonment. "The court has convicted Jain and his wife Anita after we argued that he misused his position as a public servant and amassed ill-gotten wealth," said chief public prosecutor Kalpana Chavan.
Chavan said that Jain's assets were worth 350 per cent of what he could have got from known sources of income. The state Home Department had received an anonymous letter in 1990 alleging that Jain owned huge properties. ACB first started a discreet enquiry and later an open enquiry before registering a case against the couple under Prevention of Corruption Act in 2003.
Chavan contended in the court that Jain had bought properties in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka in his own name as well as in the names of his family members. She also told the court that Jain had several bank accounts. He had set up two trusts -- Sarla Trust in the name of his mother and and AK Jain Trust -- to channelise the ill-gotten money, prosecution said.
During 1982 and 1995, Jain's total income was about Rs 13 lakh and his expenses about Rs 9 lakh, which meant that he should hold properties/ investments of about Rs 5 lakh, but in reality his assets were worth Rs 41 lakh, ACB said. "We have not taken into account the gold jewellery that was in Anita's possession while calculating the disproportionate assets, as we gave her a benefit of doubt. We also did not count their daily expenses during the check period (period under scrutiny)," prosecutor Chavan said.
Prosecution examined 19 witnesses to prove the case. Besides the three years' imprisonment, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on Jain and his wife. Both were later granted bail. In April 2013, Jain and his Chartered Accountant were sentenced to five years' jail term for taking bribe from a junior officer for protecting him in departmental inquiry.
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