Assam: Chargesheet against 21 govt officials in Rs 1.3 crore PWD scam filed
GUWAHATI: Seven years after the offence was committed, Assam Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell (CM’s SVC) on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against 21 accused in Rs 1.30 crore Dibrugarh Rural Roads Division in Upper Assam.
In the 1344-page chargesheet, the investigating agency accused 21 officials of the scam.
“Upon completion of investigation, and receipt of prosecution sanction orders against the government officials, the chargesheet has been submitted today vide chargesheet No 2/2024 in the Special Court against 21 arrested accused persons. Out of 24 accused persons, 3 expired,” an official statement of Assam Police here said.
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The investigating agency had registered a case No 7/2017 under sections 120 (B)/406/409/468/471/420/511 IPC read with Sections 13 (2)/15 of PC Act 1988 against 24 government officials for fraudulent withdrawal of funds from government exchequer.
Some of the accused persons are Biswath Bhattacharjee, Bhabesh Chandra Haloi, Kamalesh Deka, Vijay Kumar Singh, Subhash Phukan, Keshab Sonowal, Mash Kamal Gogoi, Dimbeswar Kalita, Rajesh Shah and Sahadul Hussain.
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It has been alleged that the officials and staff of Dibrugarh Rural Road Division, the office of the chief engineer, PWD Roads, Assam and the officials and staff of PWD Budget Branch, Assam Secretariat, for had misappropriated funds to the tune of Rs 1,30,47,282.00.
“This was done by them in connivance with some contractors, by submitting forged demand proposals against 16 fake work orders for the construction of roads which were never actually constructed in the field. The FIR of the instant case was based on six forged demand proposals, later on 10 more suspected forged works were included in the ambit of investigation,” the statement added.