Former UN official from India gets 8 years in jail for graft

New York, April 2 : A former United Nations official from India convicted of accepting bribes has been sentenced to eight years and a month by a New York court.

Fifty-Seven-year-old Sanjaya Bahel is convicted of accepting bribes including two steeply discounted luxury Manhattan apartments. On Tuesday, jury declared that he had helped a friend win 100 million dollars in UN contracts.

Bahel was chief of the UN's commodity procurement section from 1999 to 2003.

Bahel was convicted of bribery, wire fraud and mail fraud last June. A defence lawyer said he would return to India only after he will serve his sentence.

ANI