The Special CBI Court of Shiv Pal Singh, which had earlier sentenced RJD chief for 14 years in one of the fodder scam cases, on Wednesday handed a similar jail term to the then Regional Director of Dumka in the Animal Husbandry Department, OP Diwakar, and slapped a fine of Rs 2 crore.
The case, RC45A/96, relates to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 34.91 crore from Dumka treasury.
The court also pronounced 7-year jail with a fine of Rs 1 core each to three other suppliers, while 33 others convicted in the case, were sentenced 3.5 years’ jail and 50 lakh fine to each of them.
Remarkably, this is the third fodder scam case disposed of by the Special CBI Court related to Dumka Treasury, where Animal Husbandry and Treasury officials in connivance with the suppliers, fraudulently withdrew more than Rs 34.91 crore against forged documents during 1991-92 to 1995-96. This is first such case which did not involve any of the politicians.
All the convicted, which includes 16 AHD officials and 21 suppliers, have been found guilty under Sections 120B, 420, 409, 467,468, 471 and 477A of IPC and under Section 13 (2) r/w 13 (1) (c) and (d) of PC Act.
“The Court has pronounced imprisonment between 3.5 to 7 years to each of the convicted persons in fodder scam case 45A/96 and also slapped fine to the tune of Rs 50 lakh to 2 crore to each of them.
Diwakar, the then Regional Director of Dumka has been pronounced maximum sentence of 14 years, 7 years each under sections of Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, which will go on consecutively,” said CBI Counsel Shiv Kumar ‘Kaka.’ If he fails to pay the fine amount, he will have to remain in jail for another 2 years, he added.
The CBI counsel further added that the Special CBI Court has also directed the Enforcement Directorate to investigate the disproportionate assets gathered after January 1990 by the convicted or those who died during the trial and seize it taking help of the CBI.
Kaka said that the other three persons, pronounced 7 years jail with a fine of Rs 1 crore, are suppliers Rajan Mehta, Tripurari Mohan Prasad and Dayanand Prasad Kashyap, he added. The sentencing was pronounced through video conferencing, he added.
“Remaining 15 officials of the Animal Husbandry Department, who were convicted by the Special CBI Court on April 9, have been sentenced 3.5 years each under sections of IPC and PC Act which will go on concurrently and have also been slapped a fine of Rs 1 crore,” said Kaka. They will have to remain in jail for another 18 months if they fail to pay the fine, he added.
list of Animal Husbandry officials sentenced in the case include -- Sardendu Kumar Das, Fredrick Karketta, Dineshwar Prasad Sharma, Hemendra Nath Verma, Krishna Kumar Prasad, Krishna Murari Sah, Manoranjan Prasad, Manoj Kumar Srivastava, Nand Kishore Prasad, Pankaj Mohan Bhuin, Pitamber Jha, Raghu Nandan Prasad, Radha Mohan Mandal, Bimal Kant Das and Shashi Kumar Sinha.
Meanwhile, other 18 suppliers, convicted under the IPC Act only, have been pronounced imprisonment of 3.5 years and fine of Rs 50 lakh each of them. Kaka said that they will have to serve extra imprisonment for 9 months, if they fail to pay the fine amount.
Suppliers given 3.5 years’ jail are -- Ajit Kumar Sinha, Ajit Kumar Verma, Anil Kumar Sinha, Sunil Kumar Sinha, Arun Kumar, Binod Kumar Jha, Dinesh Kumar Sinha, Gopinath Das, Harish Chandra Agrawal, Mohinder Singh Bedi, Prakash Kumar lal, Rakesh Kumar Agrawal, Ram Avtar Sharma, Ravi Nandan Sinha, Sanjay Agrawal, Sanjay Shankar, Sunil Gandhi and Sushil Kumar Sinha.
Chargesheet in the case had been filed on January 10, 2001 against OP Diwakar and 71 others while the charges were framed on September 11, 2003. 17 accused persons died during the trial and one of them SN Dubey was discharged by the High Court while other five accused persons are still absconding since investigations were initiated in the case.
Five other accused persons namely Rameshwar Prasad Choudhary, Md Sayeed, Shailesh Prasad Singh, Naresh Prasad and Shiv Kumar Patwari turned approvers. Meanwhile, two accused persons - Pramod Kumar Jaiswal and Sushil Jha pleaded guilty were convicted on confession, he added.
The Special CBI Court had convicted 37 out of a total of 42 accused persons in the case on April 7.