E-Paper
Ex-secretariat official gets 6 yrs in jail for ₹23 lakh fraud
The former official had lured the complainant with the promise of securing “high-level work” in the government
A court here on Wednesday sentenced a former secretariat official to six years of rigorous imprisonment for using his official position to cheat an individual man of ₹23.40 lakh, as per a note issued by the state police headquarters on Wednesday.
The fraud and corruption case lodged against Rakesh Kumar Srivastava, who was posted as an assistant review officer (ARO) in the secretariat administration department (Section-3), was investigated by the economic offences wing (EOW), Lucknow, it added.
The court of a special anti-corruption judge (Court No. 6) awarded the sentence to Srivastava. The court also imposed a fine of ₹55,000 on him, with an additional three months’ imprisonment for each instance of non-payment.
The case was registered under Section 420 IPC for fraud and Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the complaint filed by one Amit Kumar Pandey, Srivastava misused his official position and lured Pandey with the promise of securing “high-level work” in the government. Under this pretext, he collected a large sum of money from the complainant as a so-called “security deposit” or “dharoahr amount”.
The EOW investigation found that Srivastava received ₹23,40,000 from the complainant over multiple transactions. Despite repeated requests, the accused neither returned the money nor fulfilled his alleged promises.
During the probe conducted by Inspector Narendra Singh, investigators collected documentary evidence, bank statements, transaction details, and witness testimonies that confirmed that the accused had fraudulently taken the money and misused his position as a public servant. Based on the evidence and prosecution by EOW, the court convicted Srivastava on all charges and pronounced the sentence on Wednesday.
