5-Year Jail For Judge's Ex Staff For Extortion, Threat To Kill Her Children: Court

A man has been sentenced to a five-year jail term for extorting money from a judge, in whose court he had worked as an assistant by threatening to kill her two children in 2007.

While awarding the jail term to Shiv Shankar Parsad Sinha, the court in Delhi said the incident affected the stream of justice and created a trust deficit among judges and support staff.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma said that before the incident, the convict, Shiv Shankar Parsad Sinha, had worked as an assistant ahlmad in the complainant Kiran Basal's court when she was a civil judge.

"Obviously, during that time he became aware of her family members and her vulnerabilities," the court said, noting, "The convict acted like an obdurate criminal by continuously texting threatening messages to the victim for extortion." Sinha had demanded Rs 4 lakh from the complainant, then posted as a metropolitan magistrate in Tis Hazari District Court Complex, and had threatened to kill her children if the money was not paid. In a text message, the convict had threatened to kill Basal's entire family.

After the incident, the accused was removed from service.

In its order passed on Friday, the court said at a workplace trust plays an important role and generally, co-­employees or an officer trusts his or her support staff. The convict misused that very trust by becoming aware of the vulnerability of his boss and made a sinister plan to extort money from her by putting her in fear of the death of her children, the court said.

"The convict has not only betrayed the trust of her boss ie the complainant but he has also shattered the trust which an officer reposes with his/her support staff. Creating fear in the mind of the judge affects his/her ability to function properly which directly affects the justice dispensation system and the same is an unpardonable act," the court said.

It termed the crime "an egregious act" which has "affected the stream of justice and also created trust deficit among judges and support staff".

The court refused to hand over a lenient punishment, saying it would do more harm to the system as well as encourage other such unscrupulous persons to commit such an offence in future.

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