Bhubaneswar: Fourteen persons, including five former sarpanches of Mayurbhanj district, were convicted by Vigilance courts in Odisha for corruption, Saturday.
According to the anti-corruption wing sources, the Special Vigilance court in Baripada convicted five former sarpanches—Sita Baskey, Mohadev Tudu, Basen Marandi, Jatindra Singh and Budhiram Singh, all under Udala block of Mayurbhanj— for misappropriation of government funds by showing undue favour to the supplier by installing substandard sodium vapour light in their locality. The court also found electrical supplier Sanjay Kumar Das of Baripada guilty in the case.
“All the convicts would undergo three-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) with fine,” the court ruled.
In another case, former assistant engineer (ITDA, Champua, Keonjhar) Sivananda Pattanaik, former junior engineer, ITDA, Champua, Keonjhar (A/P-AE (Civil), Mahanadi North Division, Jagatpur, Cuttack) Shaktiranjan Singhsamanta and Chaturbhuja Behera, a private person, were convicted for misappropriation of government funds during the execution of a project in Champua block of Keonjhar. The Special Vigilance court in Keonjhar awarded them four years of RI and imposed fines.
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Sk Usman Khan, a former Law moharir-cum-tax collector from Cuttack Municipal Corporation, was convicted for misappropriating municipal dues collected as fines. He was sentenced to four years of RI and fined by the Special Vigilance in Cuttack. Odisha Vigilance will request the stoppage of his pension.
Srikanta Mohapatra, a former city-level technical cell (CLTC) professional at DRDAcum-DUDA in Angul, was convicted for demanding and accepting bribe to process data for passing a bill under the PMAY. The Special Vigilance court in Angul sentenced him to undergo four years of RI and also slapped a fine.
Hemanta Kumar Mishra, a former accountant at the office of the DFO (Territorial) in Sundargarh, was convicted for possessing disproportionate assets (DA). He was sentenced to three years of RI and fined Rs1 lakh by the Special Vigilance court in Sundargarh.
The court also ordered the confiscation of his DA amounting to Rs3,40,669. Vigilance will pursue the stoppage of his pension. Bhuban Mohan Dash, former area manager of MARKFED in Jagannathpur of Ganjam, and Sk Abdul Ataullah, a former depot in-charge of MARKFED in Jagannathpur, were convicted for their involvement in the shortage of fertilizer stock at Kodala depot, causing Rs11,35,306 loss to the government.
PNN
