New Delhi: Over 36 years after the CBI filed an FIR, a special court in Lucknow has sentenced eight people, including two retired Lt Colonels and a Major, to three-year imprisonment in a Rs 3.82 crore scam related to local purchases made at inflated rates for the MES (Military Engineering Services), officials said Sunday.
The CBI said Lt Col Satya Pal Sharma (retd), who was then posted as Commander works engineer (CWE), MES, Allahabad (Colonel Administration, Command Station, Srinagar) was sentenced by a special court recently.
The others sentenced along with him are YK Uppal, then Garrison Engineer (West); KS Saini (Lt Colonel), then Garrison Engineer (West); Virendra Kumar Jain, then Garrison Engineer (East); SS Thakkar (Major), then Garrison Engineer (Air Force), Bamrauli, all posted in Allahabad (now Prayagraj).
Besides them, the court sentenced Ashok Kumar Deora, Anil Kumar Deora, Pawan Kumar Deora, all proprietors and partners of different fictitious firms, the agency Spokesperson said.
The CBI had registered the case September 25, 1986 on the allegations of huge local purchases made at exorbitant rates in violation of laid down guidelines during the period November 1983 to November 1985.
“Although the amount may look small in today’s terms but it was a huge amount back then when the scam transpired,” an official said.
Within four years, the CBI had filed its chargesheet December 19, 1990 and charges were framed April 29, 2002.
The Allahabad High Court stayed the proceedings in 2002 which was vacated after 17-years in 2019 and trial begun, the officials said.
The agency had to navigate through Covid in 2020 onwards to ensure that all witnesses, many of them quite aged, start appearing before the court to record their testimonies.
PTI