Bhubaneswar, March 31: The Special Vigilance Court today convicted an executive engineer of the works department and his wife in a disproportionate assets case.
The court sentenced the engineer, Jagannath Mohini, 59, to three years' rigorous imprisonment besides slapping on him a penalty of Rs 10 lakh. The court also handed his wife Renubala, 56, a one-year jail term while also imposing on her a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
Special public prosecutor Sunil Pati said Renubala was convicted for abetting the offence. "During the trial, it was found that Renubala aided the engineer's corrupt practice of accumulating the ill-gotten property. If she fails to pay the fine, she will undergo another six months in jail," said Pati.
The case had been registered in 2005 when Mohini was posted as the executive engineer in the rural works division in Koraput. The vigilance sleuths had, on September 20, 2005, conducted raids on his office and residence in Koraput, his parental house and his father-in-law's house. The vigilance cell had found disproportionate assets worth Rs 40 lakh during the search operation.
Subsequently, the vigilance had chargesheeted the couple in December 2005.
Mohini had joined the government service as junior engineer in 1982 and was later promoted to the ranks of assistant engineer and executive engineer. At present, he is working as the executive engineer in the roads and buildings division in Rayagada. The couple, who were present in the court today, broke down on hearing the judgment.
In another incident, police last night arrested a 35-year-old person for allegedly duping several people on the pretext of providing used cars at cheap prices. The accused, Trupti Das, had collected more than Rs 50 lakh from several people in Bhubaneswar and the adjoining areas promising them used cars.
The police said Trupti had set up an office at Bijay Vihar in the Lingaraj police limits and attracted several customers through advertisements, but did not hand over cars to them.
"Around 30 cases are pending against him," said a police official.
