New Delhi, October 25
Former Sikkim Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari was today convicted along with nine others, including an IAS officer, by a designated CBI court in Gangtok in the state water
scam, leading to a loss of Rs 4 lakh to the state exchequer.
The court sentenced Bhandari and the then state rural development secretary P.K Pradhan to six-month imprisonment and fined them Rs 10,000.Eight private contractors were also sentenced to five-month imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000.
The case was registered against the former Chief Minister and 15 others in 1984 and the chargesheet filed in 1994. However, the trial could not begin as Bhandari and others filed several pleas in various courts, including the Sikkim High Court.
They were charged by the CBI with criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct and corruption. While two were acquitted, four contractors died during the trial.
According to the CBI, Pradhan, in connivance with Bhandari, had awarded the works of the rural water supply scheme in Sikkim to contractors on exorbitant rates ignoring recommendations of engineers and the lowest rates of deserving contractors, causing loss to the state
exchequer. Eight of the accused had challenged the framing of charges against them by the Special
Judge, Gangtok.
— PTI
