Former Revenue and land Reforms Minister Dulal Bhuiyan was today convicted in a Disproportionate Assets case by a Special CBI court here on Thursday. The court of AK Mishra, Spl. Judge, CBI, sentenced Bhuiyan to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 5 years with a fine of Rs 10 lakhs. In default of payment of fine, he will have to undergo another one year RI.
The Jharkhand High Court had passed an order for investigating the assets of several ex-ministers, including that of Bhuiyan. An FIR was registered by CBI against Bhuiyan under Prevention of Corruption Act vide RC 21/13 and the chargesheet was filed against him for possessing disproportionate assets worth Rs. 1.03 crores on January 01, 2014
During trial, the CBI examined 21 witnesses. Dulal Bhuiyan further produced 21
witnesses.Disproportionate assets from his know sources of income worth Rs 86 lakhs were proved in the court. Bhuiyan has been taken into custody by the court.
Earlier, hearing a Public Interest litigation, the High Court had asked the CBI to investigate the allegations of corruption against former CM Madhu Koda, former ministers Bhanu Pratap Shahi, Kamlesh Singh,Dulal Bhuiyan, Anosh Ekka and Harinarayan Rai. The CBI, during investigation found that Bhuiyan bought expensive land in Ranchi and Jamshedpur at multiple locations and also bought luxury cars and stocked cash in his bank accounts.
According to the CBI,, the assets were gathered by Bhuiyan between March 10 , 2005 and September 01, 2009, during his tenure as minister of the State.