5 sentenced in Assam's LOC scam for fraudulent withdrawal of govt funds

Guwahati, Oct 30: The Court of the Special Judge, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Assam, has sentenced five accused of the infamous "Letter of Credit" (LOC) scam to imprisonment ranging between 18 months and three years.

Additionally, they were also slapped a fine of Rs 1.6 lakh for their involvement in the scam that shook the State during the 90s.

The court punished M Rahman, the then manager of a duck breeding farm, 'Phuroni'; BN Chakraborty, the then Upper Division Assistant (UDA) of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, and three others - Jayanta Sharma, TK Das and Pranab Saikia - in connection with the case related to fraudulent withdrawal of government funds.

"Accused M Rahman was sentenced to two years of imprisonment with a fine of Rs 35,000, BN Chakraborty was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 25,000, Jayanta Sharma was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 40,000, TK Das was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 50,000, and Pranab Saikia was sentenced to 1.5 years of imprisonment with a fine of Rs 10,000," a statement said.

Earlier, Dr T Buragohain, then Additional Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department (Hills), Haflong was entrusted by the State government as the head of the department for the implementation of the development of hill areas of Assam, authorising him to effect the purchase of instruments, appliances, machines, tools, plants, etc., and other stores including livestock when the purchase is made through Central Stores Department or through a duly constituted purchase board.

It was alleged that taking advantage of this, Dr T Buragohain entered into a criminal conspiracy with government officials including Hrangkhol, Hafiz Ali, BN Chakraborty and Dandi Sonowal along with other public servants and private persons. By abusing their official positions, they allegedly prepared and passed some fictitious bills amounting to Rs 1,74,86,827 and drew from the treasury in excess, in the year 1991-92.

"Accused knew well that there was no such justification for withdrawl of the alleged amount, in question and thereby they defrauded the government. After the completion of investigation, the chargesheet was filed by the CBI on May 13, 1994, against the accused including those convicted by the court. Some accused, including Dr T Buragohain, died during the trial. The court, after completion of the trial, held the aforesaid five accused guilty and sentenced them accordingly," the CBI statement added.

CBI had reegistered the instant case on May 17, 1994 by taking over FIR lodged by the Assam police against the accused, including those convicted.

- By Staff Reporter