Patiala, April 20
Mansa District Planning Committee chairman and former MLA Mangat Rai Bansal along with 21 others was today convicted and sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment in a 14-year-old case of paddy embezzlement. Those convicted include three Food Corporation of India officials.

A special CBI court of Judge Hemant Gopal convicted the Congress-turned-SAD leader along with 23 others, including rice millers primarily from Bareta in Mansa and FCI officials for their role in the supply and procurement of substandard rice.

Two of the 24 convicted have been sentenced to three years in jail. The accused have been sent to jail under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (conspiracy), IPC, and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI had registered a case on September 23, 1999 following a writ petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court had ordered a CBI probe against rice millers and certain FCI officials. The CBI later collected 53 samples of stocked rice from the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation, Bareta. The samples were taken to ascertain the allegations that the norms were ignored and substandard rice was stocked by FCI officials.

Nine more samples were taken by an officer appointed by the high court, establishing irregularities on the part of 13 rice millers. The CBI later booked the rice millers, including Mangat Rai Bansal.

Bansal was escorted by a local police team to Patiala jail after being convicted late this afternoon. Bansal had won the 2007 Assembly poll from Budhlada in Mansa on Congress ticket. In the 2012 elections, he lost to Janmeja Singh Sekhon (SAD) from Maur seat on Congress ticket. He then joined the SAD in September 2012. Meanwhile, the court has granted bail to Bhagwan and Bhagirath Lal, who were awarded three years in jail.