Additional district magistrate convicted for corruption

A court in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district today sentenced an additional district magistrate to seven years' imprisonment in a corruption case.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.50 lakh on the accused, the then Bilaspur sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Santosh Dewangan who had changed his own order to favour some persons.
Judge Pankaj Sharma of special court for Prevention of Corruption Act cases passed the order today, said the special public prosecutor K L Agrawal.
Dewangan is currently additional district magistrate of Narayanpur district.
The court however acquitted the co-accused Chitpal Singh Walia for lack of evidence.
In 2009, Lingiadih resident Kamlesh Shukla had complained against Dewangan to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Sardari Lal Kashyap, resident of Rajkishore Nagar in Bilaspur, had complained to the local administration about some illegal construction on government land near Lingiadih by Walia and eight others.

On June 18, 2009 SDM Dewangan imposed fine of Rs 1.5 lakh on Walia and others for illegal construction. But he revoked his decision a few hours later and passed another order, the complaint by Shukla said.
Shukla alleged that Dewangan changed his own order by colluding with Walia.
He produced two orders passed by Dewangan on the same day, on the basis of which ACB lodged a case under section 420 (cheating), 467(forgery) of IPC and also under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Dewangan is out on bail after his arrest by ACB in the case two years ago.