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A Sena medal-winning Colonel is among six army personnel sentenced to 18 months in prison by a Central Bureau of Investigation special court after being convicted of making fake purchases in a 17-year-old case.
Judge Darshan Singh held all the seven accused, including a supplier, guilty and sentenced them to one-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday. The court also directed the convicts Captain Sudhir Deopujari, the brigade ordnance officer, to pay a fine of Rs 25,000, Captain Suresh Hingorani, second-in-command, and Havaldar S G Kulkarni to pay Rs 12,500 each and Anil Dalal, auditor, Colonel K K Pandey and Major D K Roy to pay Rs 6,250 each. Naresh Chadha, who owned United Trading Company and S K Enterprises, has been slapped with a fine of Rs 20,000.
The prosecution had alleged that the officials used to get fake purchase bills from two firms owned by the Ambala resident, even though the material was never delivered. The CBI had registered four different cases against the accused in 1992 and filed the chargesheets in 1993. It held that payments were made on bogus bills raised without receipt of any material. According to investigators, fake bills were raised for amounts of Rs 5.65 lakh , Rs 1.63 lakh, Rs 2.83 lakh and Rs 2.01 lakh in 1990. Colonel Pandey had also been awarded a Sena medal after the 1971 war. The CBI had charged the seven with cheating and forgery. The six army officials were also charged with offences under the provisions of Prevention of CorruptionAct.