Bhubaneswar: Altogether six persons, including three retired government officials, were convicted by the Special Vigilance Courts in Odisha in separate cases of graft today.

The six persons were convicted for either misappropriation of government funds or possession of disproportionate assets (DA), said the Vigilance department.

A Special Vigilance Court in Keonjhar convicted three persons in connection with the misappropriation of government funds through substandard work in the construction of a precast concrete bridge (PCB) over Mermeda nullah in Champua block.

The convicts are Sivananda Pattanaik, retired Assistant Engineer of ITDA, Champua; Shaktiranjan Singhsamanta, former Junior Engineer of ITDA, Champua and Chaturbhuja Behera, a private person.

At present, Singhsamanta is working as the Assistant Engineer (Civil) at Mahanadi North Division at Jagatpur in Cuttack.

The three convicts were sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) each. Besides, they have been slapped with penalties.

In the second case, Hemanta Kumar Mishra, retired accountant at DFO office in Sundargarh, was convicted by a Special Vigilance Court for possession of DA.

Mishra was sentenced to three years of RI and slapped with penalties to the tune of Rs 1 lakh in the DA case.

The court also directed the officials concerned to confiscate the DA (around Rs 3.40 lakh) possessed by Mishra.

In another case, Usman Khan, a retired Law Moharir-cum-Tax Collector of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) was convicted by a Special Vigilance Court for misappropriation of government funds.

The court sentenced Khan to four years of RI and asked him to pay the fine.

Srikanta Mohapatra, a former City Level Technical Cell (CLTC) professional at DRDA-cum-DUDA in Angul, was convicted in a bribery case.

A Special Vigilance Court in Angul sentenced Mohapatra to four years of RI and imposed penalties on him. Mohapatra was earlier sacked from service in the graft case.

Soon after their conviction, the six persons were sent to jail custody to serve their sentences.

The Vigilance Department will soon move the competent authorities for stoppage of the pensions of the three retired government employees convicted in the graft cases. The department will seek the dismissal of the serving government employee convicted by the Special Vigilance Court, said an official.