A storm of words and justice swept through the Madras High Court as it handed down a stern message along with a prison sentence: corruption isn’t just a systemic blight — it’s a domestic one.
In a damning verdict that doubled as a moral wake-up call, the Court convicted V Govindaswamy, a Customs Department Superintendent, and his wife, V Geetha, for amassing assets far beyond their lawful means. The price for this ill-gotten luxury? Four years in prison for each and a hefty fine — ₹75 lakh for him and ₹25 lakh for her.
But it wasn’t just the numbers that stung. The Court used the moment to issue a searing indictment of everyday corruption, rooted not in boardrooms or political corridors, but in the living rooms of the guilty. “Corruption starts from the home,” the judge declared, invoking Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s call for children to stand up to corrupt parents. “If the homemaker is a party to corruption, there is no end to it.”
Geetha, according to the Court, didn’t just look away — she flourished in the wealth her husband illicitly secured. “Her life was a bed of roses,” the judge observed, “watered by bribes.” And now, she must pay the price in steel bars and concrete walls.
The story began in 2012, when the CBI raided the couple’s properties and unearthed a suspicious fortune — cash and documents pointing to wealth ballooning over ₹1.1 crore, nearly 450% above Govindaswamy’s known income. Yet in 2018, a trial court acquitted them, buying into what the High Court later described as “fanciful doubts” and trivial gaps in evidence.
That decision didn’t sit well with the CBI, which appealed. And now, the High Court has undone what it called an “unmerited acquittal,” saying the lower court had distorted the principle of reasonable doubt to absurdity.
In words as heavy as the gavel itself, the judge warned of the ruin that trails bribery: “He who takes bribes may enjoy the wealth as if it were the finest food, but it will turn to sand in his mouth.” Quoting scripture and philosophy alike, the order painted a grim portrait of dishonest profit — a mirage that dissolves into disgrace.
With both Govindaswamy and his wife now convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the judgment closes a chapter that began with suspicion and ends with a clear message: corruption might be a national disease, but its cure starts at the dinner table.
No one, the Court warned, escapes the reckoning forever — not even those who smile through silk curtains while someone else counts the bribe.
