The Special Judge, Vigilance of Bhawanipatna has convicted Additional Civil Supplies Officer (ACSO) of Bargarh district Manoj Kumar Pradhan in an old case registered against him in Kalahandi district. While Pradhan was the Marketing Inspector in Kalahandi in 2007 onwards, a Vigilance case for misappropriation of Government fund for falsely showing procurement of custom milling of rice had been registered against him in 2010. Meanwhile, he was transferred to Bargarh as ACSO and was in dual charge for Jagatsinghpur district also.
The Vigilance court sentenced Pradhan to undergo three and a half years’ rigorous imprisonment and pay Rs 5 lakh as fine. In case of default to pay the fine amount, he is to further undergo one more year of imprisonment.
The vigilance judge further ordered Pradhan to undergo five years’ RI and pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh in a second case for the offence. And in a third case, he was sentenced to undergo three and a half year RI and pay a fine for Rs 3 lakh. All the sentences are to run concurrently.
The Vigilance department will now move the competent authority in Government for dismissal of Pradhan from job for the gross irregularities.