A special CBI court, which on April 9 convicted 37 people in a fodder scam case pertaining to illegal withdrawal of money from Dumka treasury, today awarded years of imprisonment to former regional director of the Animal Husbandry Department Omprakash Diwakar.
The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 2 on him in connection with illegal withdrawal of Rs 34.92 crore between 1991-92 and 1995 and 96 from the treasury.
The court of Shiv Pal Singh sentenced Diwakar to seven years in prison and Rs 1 crore penalty under IPC sections 120B, 420, 409, 467, 468, 471 and 477A and another seven years and Rs 1 crore penalty under sections 13 (2) r/w 13 (1) (c ) &(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act. Both the sentences would run consecutively.
The court also sentenced other former treasury officials and fodder suppliers between 3.5 and seven years and slapped up to Rs 1 crore fines on them.
The court had on April 9 acquitted five persons.
A charge sheet against 72 accused was filed on October 10, 2001 in the court of special judge at Patna. Upon bifurcation of the state, the trial of case was transferred to the special judge court at Ranchi considering the place of alleged occurrence in Jharkhand.
Seventeen accused died during trial while one accused S N Dubey was discharged by the high court. Five accused -- Rameshwar Prasad Choudhary, Dr. Md. Sayeed, Shailesh Prasad Singh, Naresh Prasad and Shiv Kumar Patwari -- were taken as approvers.
Two accused -- Pramod Kumar Jaiswal and Sushil Jha -- pleaded guilty and had already been convicted on confession and are now dead.
Five accused persons are still absconding.
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