E-Paper
Two NER staff, two others sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for fraud
Lucknow CBI court sentences four persons, including NER staff, to 3-10 years RI for causing ₹3 crore loss to government exchequer, fines totaling ₹5.8 lakh.
The court of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Lucknow sentenced rigorous imprisonment (RI) of up to three to ten years to four persons, including two North Eastern Railway (NER) staff of Gorakhpur, in a case related to loss of around ₹3 crore caused to government exchequer, said senior CBI officials here on Wednesday.
The officials said the court slapped a total fine of ₹5.8 lakh on all four accused.
Sharing further details in a press note, the CBI officials stated that the Special Judge for CBI cases, Lucknow, has sentenced the former NER record lifter Bharat Yadav to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and slapped fine of ₹40,000 on him, and senior attendant of accounts sections of NER Anil Kumar Mandal to three years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped fine of ₹10,000 in the same case. Besides, one private person Rakesh Kumar Mishra alias Laddu Baba, was sentenced to ten years’ rigorous imprisonment and was slapped fine of Rs.5.2 lakh while another private person Rajesh Kumar Singh was sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and slapped with fine of Rs10,000.
The CBI had registered a case against Rakesh Kumar Mishra, private person, for hatching a criminal conspiracy in connivance with Bharat Yadav, then peon, NER, Gorakhpur; Anil Kumar Mandal, then peon, NER, Gorakhpur and Rajesh Singh and Chandra Shekhar Choudhary, both private persons, on October 31, 2012. It was alleged that in furtherance of criminal conspiracy to cheat and defraud the Railways, accused forged cheques of the Railways by scanning original cheques of NER, Gorakhpur and deposited such forged cheques in SBI Main Branch, Gorakhpur, which amounted to ₹21. 86 crore. The bank credited nearly ₹3 crore in one account and the rest could not be transferred due to technical issues.
CBI filed a chargesheet against accused persons including those convicted by the court on November 9, 2013. After trial, the court held them guilty and sentenced them accordingly while one accused Chandra Shekhar Choudhary, private person, was acquitted by the court. The conviction comes in the wake of meticulous investigation and effective prosecution.
