New Delhi, Dec 12 A special CBI court in Lucknow has sentenced two individuals -- a former village pradhan and a fair-price shopkeeper -- to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in a major corruption case involving misappropriation of over Rs one crore under the Sampurna Grameen Rozgar Yojna (SGRY), the agency said on Friday.
The verdict was delivered on Thursday. According to an official release, the court convicted Satya Narayan Prasad Patel, then village pradhan, and Shahnawaj Alam, then fair-price shopkeeper (kotedar), imposing a total fine of Rs 55,000 on the two.
The court held them guilty of causing wrongful loss to the government exchequer by siphoning off cash and foodgrains allocated for rural employment and welfare.
The case dates to 2006, when Narhi Police Station in Ballia district registered an FIR alleging large-scale irregularities in SGRY distribution.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the probe on October 31, 2008 and registered a case against 172 accused persons, including officials responsible for implementing the scheme at the village and district levels.
Investigators found that the accused caused a wrongful loss of Rs 65 lakh in cash and misappropriated foodgrain worth Rs 45.26 lakh, preparing forged records and using fraudulent means to divert government resources intended for the rural poor.
“It was alleged that the accused persons had caused wrongful loss to the Government Exchequer to the tune of Rs 65.00 lakh in cash and foodgrain worth Rs 45.26 lakh and corresponding gain to themselves by cheating, fraud, and preparing forged documents under Sampurna Grameen Rozgar Yojna (SGRY),” the CBI said in its press note.
After a detailed investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet on November 10, 2010, against three individuals: Satyendra Singh Gangwar, then Chief Finance and Accounts Officer of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) Ballia; Satya Narayan Prasad Patel; and Shahnawaj Alam.
Following the trial, the CBI court convicted Patel and Alam but acquitted Gangwar of all charges.
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