Ex-staffer of AFK gets fouer years’ rigorous imprisonment for wrong dealings

PUNE: A special CBI court has convicted and sentenced a 60-year-old ex-employee of the marketing and export section at the

Ammunition Factory Khadki

(AFK) to four years of rigorous imprisonment for

criminal misconduct

and abusing his official position to secure wrongful pecuniary advantage from

civil arms dealers

between 2010 and 2016.


Special judge Pralhad C Bhagure on Saturday found accused, former junior works manager who was in-charge of the marketing and export section at the Ammunition Factory Khadki (AFK), Niranjan Chandulal Shah, guilty of inducing 10 private dealers to deposit varied amounts, totally worth Rs79,600 on 13 separate occasions, in the bank accounts held by him, jointly with his wife and that of his subordinate on the pretext of hike in taxes, packaging charges, late fees and even donation for Ganesh festival, to clear the dispatch of their orders for non-prohibited bore cartridges available for civil trade.

Shah, a resident of Ganeshnagar in

Dapodi

, had sought the help of his subordinate on the pretext that his accounts were frozen and his relatives wanted to transfer some funds to him. The unsuspecting subordinate — one of the 31 witnesses examined by public prosecutor Abhayraj Arikar — provided his account number to Shah to facilitate the deposits. It was the Central Bureau of Intelligence’s (CBI’s) case that Shah was not authorized to collect such amounts, particularly when the dealers had complied with all the payment modalities for their orders.

Apart from the four-year main sentence under Sections 13 (2) read with 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the court also sentenced Shah to three years of rigorous imprisonment for an offence under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code. The sentences are to run concurrently, the court said.

Referring to the evidence on record and deposition by witnesses during the trial, the judge observed, “It is nothing but absolute cheating and abuse of powers by a public servant while discharging his duty for taking undue pecuniary advantage. The accused not only cheated the dealers but also his colleague and abused his official position by using his account for illegal purpose.”

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