14 former officials of Central Water Commission convicted

PUNE: The special judge for CBI cases Patiala House Courts, New Delhi has convicted 14 accused persons including 2 then deputy directors, 2 then assistant directors of Central Water Commission and 2 then senior accounts officers of Pay and Accounts office New Delhi for causing a huge loss to government exchequer.
The court sentenced J P Sharma, then deputy director; Jai Kumar Singhal, then assistant; Y P Sharma, then assistant, Om Prakash Narang, then UDC, S K Aggrawal, then pay and accounts officer all five to undergo seven years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 2.01 lakh each and Om Prakash, then deputy director; other Om Prakash, then draftsman; Chandreshwar Majhi, then section officer, Shiv Sagar Nayak, then section officer, Hayat Singh, then official all five of CWC to undergo five years rigorous imprisonment with fine from Rs 10,000 to 1.10 lakh and B M Ghosh, then assistant director; Jeet Ram, then computer assistant both of CWC to undergo three years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 30,000 while I Yeshudanan, then assistant director of CWC, Natha Ram Suman, then senior accounts officer both to undergo one year rigorous imprisonment with fine from Rs 1000 to 10,000.
CBI had registered a case in 2001 on a reference from CWC against the accused persons on the allegations that they had connived with the officers of P and AO in defalcating government money by making forged and false bills and vouchers.
Investigation had revealed that accused officials of P and AO and CWC had entered into a criminal conspiracy to defraud government money by raising fictitious bills supported with fake sanction orders.
The accused got them passed and further fraudulently withdrew government money through P and AO cheques. Some of which were issued in the name of non-existent persons. The officials had committed irregularities in drawl of pay and allowances to the tune of Rs 23,67,95 (approx) from July 1999 to March 2000, out of which a sum of Rs 19,30,893 (approx) was claimed to have been refunded by the concerned official through challans which were found to be fake during November 2000 by the special audit team. Other several irregularities were also noticed wherein payments were released to unconcerned persons.
After investigation, a chargesheet was filed against 17 accused persons in the court. During trial, three persons expired. The court found remaining 14 accused guilty and convicted them.