CBI court convicts post office, NHAI employees over graft

Jodhpur, July 1: A CBI court here on Friday, July 1 convicted two employees of post office and one of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in separate graft cases.

In the first case, Pancharam and Arjunram, who were posted at Phalodi post office, had fraudulently taken out Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh between 2007-2009 from public accounts, according to the prosecution.

Terming it an act of "shaking the trust of investors" in institutions like post office, special court (CBI) Judge M R Suthar sentenced the duo to 7 years rigorous imprisonment.

A penalty of Rs 22 lakh and Rs 7 lakh was also imposed on Pancharam and Arjunram respectively. In the second case, the court convicted Surendra Kumar Soni, an employee of NHAI, for accepting a bribe of Rs 15 lakh from a plantation contractor in return for clearing his bills.

Judge Suthar sentenced Soni to 6 years imprisonment apart from imposing a penalty of Rs 50,000 on him after public prosecutor Rakesh Kumar pleaded for a harsher sentence. During search of Soni's house after his arrest by CBI on April 29, 2013, expensive imported items had also been seized from his possession.

PTI