NRHM ex-director gets 4 yrs in prison, health dept engineer 1-yr jail for graft

AIZAWL: The Special Court (Prevention of Corruption Act) here on Monday sentenced the former mission director of National Rural Health Mission (Mizoram), N Palai (76), to four years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 24 lakh on him in a graft case.
The same court sentenced the executive engineer of the state health department, Lalsangliana Chhakchhuak (58), to undergo one year of imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 6 lakh on him.The two former government officials were convicted of misappropriation/diversion of Rs 5.74 crore meant for the upgrade of the Civil Hospital in Aizawl by Special Judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) HTC Lalrinchhana on May 12.
Regarding Palai, the judge said the convicted person has been sentenced under Section 471 read with 120B Indian Penal Code (IPC) to undergo four years of imprisonment with a fine of Rs 8 lakh, failure to pay which will lead to four more years in prison.
Palai was also sentenced under Section 477A read with 120B IPC to undergo four years of imprisonment with a fine of Rs 8 lakh, in default, another imprisonment of four years. And again sentenced under sections 13 (2) r/w 13 (1) (c) & (d) of PC Act, 1988 read with 120B of the IPC to undergo four years of imprisonment with a fine of Rs 8 lakh, in default, another prison term of four years. However, the judge ruled, "Being an old and retired government servant and not likely to repeat similar offences, all the aforesaid sentences except fine shall run concurrently."
Former executive engineer Chhakchhuak was also convicted on three counts (1 year each and Rs 2 lakh each) which would go concurrently, except the fine of Rs 6 lakh.
Leniency was shown to Chhakchhuak 'due to less gravity of offence than the convicted Dr N Palai, involving less quantum of corrupted money', the judge said.
During the hearing of the sentence, senior special public prosecutor for CBI submitted aggravating circumstances to inflict deterrent form of punishment upon both the convicted persons.
"The nature of offence is a type of violation of human rights (Right to health) as corrupted fund was received for the improvement of health infrastructure in the state, this court could not overlook the daily medical hindrances facing by the needy and deprived sections in the society," the CBI public prosecutor pleaded.