KOCHI: Muvattupuzha Vigilance Court sentenced SI to five years imprisonment and fine in bribery case. The court verdict is against Muhammad Ashraf, who had the charge of grade SI at Kothamangalam police station. The police officer took the bribe to help the defendant in the criminal case. Mohammad Ashraf was arrested while accepting bribe in 2016.

Meanwhile, a village officer was also sentenced to imprisonment by the Muvattupuzha Vigilance Court in another bribe case. Chathurangapara village officer Prabhakaran Nair was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of Rs 65,000. The incident related to the sentence took place in September 2009. Prabhakaran was arrested by the police while accepting a bribe from Muhammad Shabin for clearing the documents related to a property. The court has granted bail to the two officials pending appeal.

In the recent past, many government officials have been arrested following the strengthening of vigilance intervention in corruption cases. The government had issued an order fixing the time limit for investigation of vigilance cases to one year. According to the order, investigations should be completed in trap cases within six months and other cases including illegal acquisition of property within one year. Three months have been fixed for the preliminary investigation and one month for lightning inspection and reconnaissance. In cases where the court prescribes a time limit, the investigation must be completed within that period. The action is as per the recommendation of the Vigilance Director.