Guwahati, Nov. 29: A CBI court today sentenced four persons, including two postal employees, to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for siphoning off money meant for UTI investors by forging documents and identities.

CBI special judge Ikramul Hussain today convicted Mahadev Pathak, Maheswar Nath, Bajra Kanta Kalita and Rajendra Maharaj under different sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for entering into a criminal conspiracy and siphoning off money meant for UTI depositors.

While Pathak and Nath are postal assistants, Kalita is a standardised agency system agent and Maharaj is a professional letter writer.

According to the prosecution, the accused had caught hold of cheques/dividend warrants dispatched by UTI to its depositors. They then opened savings accounts at the Guwahati GPO using fictitious names and false documents, deposited the cheques/dividend warrants and subsequently withdrew the money.

The fraud took place in the 1990s and the anti-corruption branch of CBI here registered the case in 1998.

The court sentenced all four accused to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 each under Sections 420 and 120B IPC, in default of which they will have to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one more month.

The two postal assistants, however, were sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 each under Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, in default of which they will have to serve the sentence for six more months.

All the sentences will run concurrently, the judge said in his order.