AIZAWL, Jan 19 - Mizoram Government on Wednesday filed a petition in Gauhati High Court against the judgement of an anti-corruption court here that discharged all the accused in the alleged corruption in the construction of two mini hydel projects in the State.
Public prosecutor AK Rokhum filed the petition before Justice LS Zamir, Judge of Gauhati High Court Aizawl bench.
The special court of Prevention of Corruption Act on October 27 last year discharged the four accused due to lack of evidence. Three officials � Liansanga, former chief engineer of PWD; Lalnunmawia Sailo, former superintending engineer of Power & Electricity department; Laldawngliana, former SDO and one supplier, Swapan Kumar Roy � were named in the final chargesheet submitted in February last year by the Anti Corruption Bureau to the court.
The engineers and officials involved in the construction of Tuipanglui mini-hydel project and Kau Tlabung mini-hydel project in the early 1990s in southern Mizoram allegedly swindled Rs 933 lakh.
More than 10 engineers and officials were named in the FIR filed by anti-corruption organisation Prism, but charges against most of them were dropped by ACB when it began investigation last year, due to lack of evidence.
The government on November 21 last approved the appeal made by government advocates in Aizawl district court to appeal to High Court, said government advocate R C Thanga.
�The court should have thoroughly examined the charge sheet filed by police and documents filed by the complainants before framing charges. In the case of Kau-Tlabung and Tuipanglui mini hydel projects case, the court made the judgement based on the defence counsel�s statements and those of their witnesses. The prosecution counsel was not given a chance to make any argument and no witnesses were summoned,� said a government advocate.
The corruption case has a long history with the first FIR having been filed in 1996. After the case got abandoned, Prism revived it by filing an FIR with ACB in October 2008. �After a thorough investigation, Vigilance department ordered ACB to register a criminal case against 13 engineers on May 13, 2010,� Vanlalruata of Prism said.
The Vigilance department, however, ordered the ACB to withdraw the case on July 2, 2010. Prism then filed a PIL in Gauhati High Court in 2010 which was taken into cognisance by the court.
