After 25 years, court convicts two in corruption case in Odisha

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Sep 4, 2017 at 11:09 PM Updated On : Sep 4, 2017 at 11:28 PM

Baripada: The Special Vigilance Court, Baripada today convicted a former head clerk of district rural development agency (DRDA) in Mayurbhanj district and a proprietor of a printing press in a 25 year-old corruption case.

The court has sentenced former head clerk Durga Madhab Mohapatra and printing press owner Hemendra Mohan Panda to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year.

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Besides the jail term, the court has imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on each of them.

Further, each of them will have to undergo an additional imprisonment of another one month on failure to pay the fine amount, the court has stated in its order.

As per the case details, the DRDA in Mayurbhanj had issued orders to M/s Purushottam Press owned by Panda to supply 50,000 no dues certificate forms and some other forms. Panda had not supplied all the forms but he managed to get his full payment. Due to this corruption, state exchequer had sustained a loss of Rs99,774. Taking cognizance of the corruption, vigilance had filed chargesheet against then head clerk Mohapatra and a former OAS officer Md. Sarwan and Panda.

However, the court made no pronouncement against Md Sarwan as he was died in 2012.