A special CBI court here on Monday sentenced 20 persons to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in connection with illegal withdrawal of Rs 18.25 lakh from the Sagar district treasury in Madhya Pradesh between July and October 1993.

CBI special Judge V.K. Srivastava imposed a fine of Rs 35,000 each on the guilty persons, some of whom are from Bihar. The judge said the convicted would have to undergo an additional six months of simple imprisonment if they failed to deposit the fine. The court acquitted an accused in the case, Tapan Chatterjee, because of lack of evidence.

Of the 20 accused, one Ram Lal Sharma was not present in the court. The court issued permanent non-bailable arrest warrant against him.

The convicted included former assistant treasury officer Sohan Lal Jain, former assistant Kalu Ram Rajak and Kishori Lal Rajore of the Sagar district treasury. The other convicted are D. K. Sharma, Birendra Kishore Singh, Izhar Hussain, Geyasuddin Khan, Tarkeshwar Prasad, Mohammed Salamat, Mohammed Mojeeb, Vishwanath Ram, Mohammed Khurshid, Mohammed Mushtaque, Mohammed Mumtaz, Ram Narayan Thakur, Mohammed Abbas, Kishore Thakur, Yugal Kishore Sinha, Sanjay Kumar and Ram Lal Sharma.

The CBI (Delhi branch) had lodged an FIR on September 9, 1996. According to the chargesheet filed by the CBI, Rs 18.25 lakh was withdrawn from the Sagar district treasury by presenting 20 fake payment of pension orders of defence pensioners during between July and October 1993.

Following the payment of the PPOs, the copies were sent to the defence accounts, pension office, Allahabad. Altogether 80 PPOs were sent to the defence accounts. Twenty of them were found fake.