New Delhi:
A Senior Income Tax Commissioner - Sanjay Srivastava - has made history as the first income tax commissioner to be sentenced to jail for contempt by the Delhi High Court.
Mr Srivastava has been sentenced to 15 days in jail by a division bench of the court today.
He had been accused of sexually harassing some of his female colleagues by making lewd and sexist comments. Despite being found guilty by the court and ordered to stop making these comments, Mr Srivastava continued to do so. A division bench has found him guilty of contempt and sentenced him to jail.
A colleague in the Income Tax department said that Sanjay Srivastava is a disgrace to the service.
Mr Srivastava has been reprimanded and fined before in another case where he attacked NDTV with false and malicious claims. The CBI court dismissed his charges against NDTV and penalised him for making what the court called unsubstantiated, unwarranted and malicious statements about NDTV.
NDTV has subsequently sued him for defamation and slander.
In separate cases, the two female colleagues have filed police complaints against Mr Srivastava and that case is pending in the trial court.