Shimla, Jun 27 (PTI) The sessions court in Himachal Pradesh's Solan district has sentenced two former agriculture department officials to five years in jail for the misappropriation of Rs 1.78 lakh under a seed-distribution scheme for SC-ST farmers, officials said on Friday.
Former cashier at the department Hari Dutt Sharma has been sentenced to a three-year jail term under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and two years of imprisonment under section 13(2) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. He has also been slapped with a fine of Rs 50,000.
Similarly, former agriculture extension officer, Darlaghat, Daya Nand Garg, has been sentenced to three years in jail under the same IPC sections and two years of imprisonment under section 13(1)(c) of the PC Act. He has been fined Rs 10,000.
Departmental action has also been recommended against the negligent supervisory officers, the officials said.
The case stemmed from a complaint from the director of the animal husbandry department, alleging misappropriation of Rs 1,78,699 under the seed-distribution scheme for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) farmers.
Investigation revealed that Sharma failed to deposit Rs 1,69,329 between 2003 and 2004. Additionally, an amount of Rs 15,822 was found in the possession of Garg.
A case under the said sections was registered against the accused in the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SV-ACB), Solan.