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Imphal, Jan. 30: A state government employee has been sentenced to three-year jail term and fined Rs 50,000 for swindling money. If he fails to pay the fine, he will serve another six months in jail.
The order was passed by additional district and sessions judge M. Manojkumar Singh on Monday.
The court found W. Mayonmi, senior accountant in the directorate of treasury and accounts, guilty of swindling Rs 2 lakh by forging documents while he was serving as a treasurer at the sub-treasury office in Ukhrul district 20 years ago. It found him guilty of cheating, forgery, falsification of accounts and financial misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court rejected a plea by Mayonmi, who hails from Phungreitang in Ukhrul district, to pardon him in view of the long process of trial, his present status as a senior government employee and the fact that he was the father of 11 children.
The case was taken up by the Manipur Vigilance Commission 20 years ago.
“The conviction of a state government employee by the court is rare and a landmark one. There may have been one or two cases of conviction in the past but such things do not happen frequently in Manipur,” public prosecutor Ngangom Tejkumar told The Telegraph. He said more than 20 cases of financial irregularities against state government employees, present and retired, were pending in the courts. If chargesheets are framed and trials conducted speedily, more employees will be convicted, which might help check graft by government employees, he added.
Sources said delay in framing chargesheets and the long process of trial often results in the accused escaping conviction as either the accused or the witnesses die.
The sources said the state vigilance commission has been asking government departments to ensure speedy inquiries in order to punish errant officials.
Bike-lifter lynched: A mob lynched a motorcycle lifter after he and two others were caught stealing a motorcycle from a house in Lilong Chaobok village in Thoubal district early this morning.
The victim has been identified as Md Nasir Rahaman, 40, a resident of Lilong Haoreibi. The body was kept at the mortuary of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences here for post-mortem. The other two thieves managed to escape.
In another incident in the district, a body, identified as that of Mohd Naha, 30, was recovered from Lilong Arapti this morning. Naha, who was mentally challenged, had been reported missing five days back. There were injury marks on his head, police said.
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