Two years rigorous imprisonment to seven then officials of Telecom Department for causing loss of Rs.1.95 crores

New Delhi/Jalandhar, January 9, 2014: The Special Judge for CBI Cases, Chennai has convicted  C. Chandrasekar, then Sub Divisional Engineer, Telecom, Mysore;  Nagarajan & Santhanakrishnan, both then officers of District Stores Department, Chennai;  B. Amar Singh, then Telephone Mechanic; G. Kumarraj, then Controller of Telecom Stores, Chennai;  K.S. Seshadri & V. Eswarsingh, both then Sub Divisional Engineers of Rural Telecom, Bangalore and sentenced them to undergo two years Rigorous Imprisonment with fine of Rs.30,000.

CBI had registered a case against then Sub Divisional Engineer, Telecom, Mysore; four then Sub Divisional Engineers of Rural Telecom, Bangalore; three then In-charge Officers of District Stores Department, Chennai; then Controller of  Telecom Stores, Chennai, then two telephone mechanics of Bangalore Telecom and  a private person & proprietor of a private Transport Company, Bangalore on the allegations that the accused persons entered into criminal conspiracy during the period 1997-1999 to cheat Telecom Department. In pursuance of the conspiracy, the Sub Divisional Engineers dishonestly & fraudulently raised false indents for Telecom store materials without any authority to the District Stores Depot and Controller of Telecom stores, Chennai.

The In charge officers of the said two stores delivered the unauthorised falsely indented materials. Further to the conspiracy, the two Telephone Mechanics & a private person transported the materials (thus delivered) worth about Rs. 1.95 crores and diverted them to the scrap merchants at Bangalore & Thiruvannamalai for about Rs.25 lakhs. The acts of the accused persons caused a loss of about Rs.1.95 crores to the Telecom Department. The accused persons were chargesheeted under Sections 120-B r/w 420 IPC and 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. During trial of the case, the three accused persons expired and charges against them were abated.

The Trial Court convicted the seven accused and acquitted two persons.