4-year jail for IAS officer

Sajal Chakraborty being brought into the courtroom on a stretcher on Friday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, July 25: Suspended bureaucrat Sajal Chakraborty was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for four years and six months in a fodder scam case.

The special CBI judge, Binay Kumar Sahay, while awarding the sentence today, also slapped a fine of Rs 3.5 lakh on the IAS pofficer.

The court convicted Chakraborty, the former Chaibasa deputy commissioner, on July 14, in the fodder scam case 51A/96, with 11 other government officials and 52 suppliers for “fraudulent withdrawal” of over Rs 38 crore from the Chaibasa treasury. During the case hearing, Chakraborty was the transport secretary and was later suspended.

The court found Chakraborty guilty of accepting a laptop and convicted him under some sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. His advocate Arwind Kumar Mitra expressed his dissatisfaction over the judgment and said “other legal experts”, too, were “taken aback” by the quantum of judgment. He pointed out that while the court hearings were conducted between April 1, 1993, and March 31, 1994, it convicted the officer for an act — accepting the laptop — that took place in December, 1994. The IAS officer stands accused in two more cases of fodder scam (RC 68/96 and RC 26/96) on same charges. “I will challenge the CBI order before Jharkhand High Court,” Mitra said.

Earlier, Chakraborty turned up before the court from RIMS where he was admitted on July 15 under judicial custody. After the sentence was pronounced, he was sent back to RIMS for medical assistance. He is suffering from diabetes, asthma, obesity and coronary diseases.

Chakraborty is the second IAS officer who was awarded sentence in the fodder scam case. Earlier, former Santhal Pargana commissioner Shripati Narayan Dubey was sent to jail for his involvement in one of the scam cases (RC 39(A)/96).