Cashew scam: 3 officials of TANFED handed jail terms in Chennai

CHENNAI: A special court for cases under Prevention of Corruption Act has sentenced three officials of TANFED for corruption and illegal sale of raw cashew nuts, causing a notional loss of 12.5 crore.
The offence took place in 1995. The court handed three-year jail to one official, while the other two got 1 year and a two year sentence respectively. Four employees of the MVR group of companies who were acting in conspiracy with them got 3 years each in prison.
The MVR group of companies, who are into production of raw cashew nuts and kernels, went into a financial crisis in 1995, due to which they were unable to clear a stock of cashew nuts, imported and available at Tuticorin port.
The seven accused officials from TANFED Sivaprakasam, an additional registrar, CM Balagopal, financial manager, and V Gunasekaran, marketing manager along with employees of MVR, including a director, two advisors and managing director, conspired to illegally sell the raw cashewnuts without assessing their quality. Documents were forged by TANFED officials, who issued a false certificate to sell the cashews, the court said.
A complaint was filed in 1998 by CID, Chennai, and the accused were charged under sec 120(B) for criminal conspiracy, 409 IPC read with sec 109. They were also booked under sec 13(2)read with 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for breach of trust by public servant.
Seven out of the 18 accused were held for corruption and given jail time for issuing certificates for illegal sale of cashew nuts bought from MVR, resulting in loss of 12.5 crore to TANFED.
Special judge J Omprakash in his order said, "Considering all factors and the time lapse of 25 years, this court is inclined to impose punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offence committed by the accused."
They all also received fines ranging between 10,000 and 30,000 each.