NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - An Indian court has jailed a woman and her employee to two years each after finding them guilty of soliciting a five rupee (10 U.S. cents) bribe while selling court stamp papers, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday.
Manju Agrawal, 48, and her employee, Deepak Sharma, 26, were accused of trying to sell a $1 stamp paper at a premium of 10 U.S. cents, an act a Delhi court found amounted to seeking a bribe, the newspaper quoted a Press Trust of India report as saying.
A stamp paper, which bears a pre-printed revenue stamp, is used in Indian courts.
The court also fined Agrawal about $300 dollars and Sharma $100.
A raft of high-profile corruption scandals in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's second term has sharpened public anger against his government, which has struggled with policymaking as it firefights one crisis after another.
India is the world's ninth most corrupt country, with 54 percent of the population paying a bribe in the last 12 months, according to a report by Transparency International. Corruption may cost India between 1 and 2 percent of gross domestic product ever year.
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