Six persons who had cheated farmers to the tune of Rs 5.76 crore were sentenced to 7 years imprisonment by the Special Court (Prevention of Corruption Act) of Justice Sandeep Kumar Srivastava on Thursday.
In connection with the purchase of paddy, the accused duped Rs 5.76 crore 76 from the farmers.
The accused are Ashish Gupta (Paddy Trader) of Chola mandir, Vinay Prakash Pateria (Market Secretary) of Bagmughalia, Rajesh Rai of Raisen, Ramswaroop Rai of Raisen, Mahesh Aggarwal and Sunil Gupta.
The accused were charged with sections 420 and 120 B of the IPC each of the accused was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of 7 years each and a fine of Rs 25000 each. In the case, special public prosecutor Ashish Tyagi and DK Arya have represented on behalf of the government.
Ashish Gupta deals in the name of M/s Siyaram Traders is a trader of grain market Karond mandi who bought paddy from the farmers and without paying the paddy purchased from them, gave them cheques which got dishonoured. Complaints about non-payment by farmers were made at Karond Mandi and at Nishatpura police station.
During the investigation, Vinay Prakash Pateria (Market Secretary), Rajesh Rai, Ramswaroop Rai, Mahesh Aggarwal, Sunil Gupta, Arvind Parihar, Jeevan Singh Rajput, Narayan Prasad Rajouria, Ranjit Goswami, Dharmendra Gupta were found involved in the crime.
Due to the evidence related to corruption by the government employee, a charge sheet was filed against 11 accused under sections 420, 406, 409, 120B of the IPC and section 7, 13(1)B, 13(2) IPC Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 49 MP Agricultural Produce Market Act 1972.
In the said case, the accused had committed the crime by cheating the farmers by scamming a total of 5 crore 76 lakh.
A total of 121 witnesses were examined by the court during the trial, out of which evidence was given by 95 farmers. On the basis of which the accused were convicted and sentenced by the court.