Bhubaneswar: As many as six persons, including three retired government officials, were convicted by courts in Odisha in separate Vigilance cases of corruption on Saturday.
Special Judge, Vigilance, Keonjhar convicted Sivananda Pattanaik, former AE, ITDA, Champua in the district, Shaktiranjan Singhsamanta, former JE, ITDA, Champua and Chaturbhuja Behera, Executant (private person), for misappropriation of government funds through substandard work in execution of the project “construction of PCB over Mermeda Nalla” in Champua block.
The Court sentenced all convicts to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 4 years each and pay a fine. All the convicts were sent to jail custody to serve their sentence.
Odisha Vigilance will now move the competent authority for dismissal of Singhsamanta, who is working as the Assistant Engineer (Civil) at Mahanadi North Division at Jagatpur in Cuttack, and stoppage of pension of Sivananda Pattanaik following their conviction.
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. He was sentenced to three years of RI and imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh in the DA case. The court also directed the officials to confiscate the DA of around Rs 3.4 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 him to four years of RI and imposed fine.
Srikanta Mohapatra, a former City Level Technical Cell (CLTC) professional at DRDA-cum-DUDA in Angul, was also convicted in a bribery case. A Special Vigilance Court in Angul sentenced him to four years of RI and imposed penalties on him. Mohapatra was earlier sacked from job in the graft case.
