A special CBI court in Ranchi on Friday sentenced former Bihar minister and RJD legislator, Illiyas Hussain, to five years of rigorous imprisonment along with six others in multi-crore bitumen scam case.

It was the second conviction of the Bihar’s former construction minister. Earlier, on September 27 last year, the Ranchi’s special court had convicted him in another bitumen-related case and sentenced him four years in jail. After the conviction, the then Dehri legislator lost membership from the Bihar legislative assembly. He is currently lodged here at the Birsa Munda Central Jail.

Besides, Hussain, the court of special judge A K Mishra also sentenced five years of rigorous imprisonment to former minister’s private secretary Md Sahabuddin Beig, the then Planning & Development director Kedar Paswan, the then deputy director Mumtaz Ahmad, the then executive engineer Ramanand Ram, section officer Shobha Sinha and transporter/supplier DN Singh.

It also slapped varied amount of fines ranging from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 20 lakh on each of the convicts. While Rs 60 lakh fine was imposed on supplier DN Singh, other convicts were fined Rs 20 lakh each. In case of default, Singh would have to undergo additional three and half years of imprisonment and others would get additional one year of jail term, the court’s order said.

Earlier, the CBI on March 20, 1997, had registered FIR against Hussain, Beig, Singh and others for allegedly misappropriating 3250 metric ton of bulk bitumen worth Rs 1.57 crore.

The CBI, which took over the probe on Patna high court’s order, in its chargesheet had alleged that Singh in connivance with the former minister and his private secretary misappropriated bitumen worth Rs 1.57 crore. The CBI had stated that Singh lifted 3250 MT bitumen from Indian Oil Corporation Limited/Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Haldia, for its transportation to road construction department, Chatra between 1994 and 1996, but connived with the former minister to embezzle the bitumen causing a whopping loss of Rs 1.57 crore.

First Published: Feb 23, 2019 12:58 IST