CWE official gets 4 years in jail in graft case

A CBI court here has sentenced an office superintendent of Commander Works Engineers (CWE), posted in Assam's Tezpur city, to four years imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on him in a graft case.

Lakhan Bhuyan, the CWE official, was accused by complainant Supriyo Das of demanding a bribe of Rs two lakh, which was later reduced to Rs one lakh, for processing and despatching his appointment letter for the post of Mate in MES, Tezpur.

The court sentenced Bhuyan to four years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 under section 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. In case of default in payment of fine he would serve an additional two months in prison, a release issued by CBI's Anti-Corruption Bureau Head A J Ramalingam said here today.

Bhuyan was also given a jail term of three years and fined Rs 10,000 under section 7 (public servant taking gratification) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, it said, adding that failure to pay the fine would entail another month in jail.

Both the sentences will run concurrently, the court ruled.

The case was registered on the basis of a written complaint by Das and the charge sheet was submitted in December 2015 before the CBI court of Special Judge in Guwahati.

The sentence was passed by the judge on Tuesday, the release said.