Ex-govt official sentenced for amassing illegal wealth

A Delhi court today sentenced a former government officer to two years imprisonment for amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 24.88 lakh during his service between 1965 and 2001.
Special CBI judge Sanjeev Jain handed down the jail term to 70-year-old Virender Singh, the then Project Director in Telecommunication Consultants India Limited (TCIL) here, after holding him guilty under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
While imposing a fine of Rs five lakh on the convict, the court also said, Rs 3.15 lakh seized from Singh's house and locker has been "confiscated to the state" which is directed to be dealt in accordance with the law".

The court, however, suspend the jail term of Singh for 30 days while allowing him to file an appeal before the superior court against his conviction and sentence.
TCIL is a government-owned engineering and consultancy company under the administrative control of the Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
According to the CBI, the check period was taken from 1965 to December 11, 2001 which was almost the entire service term of the accused. The agency concluded that Singh was found having disproportionate assets of Rs 31.14 lakh.

The CBI probed Singh's wealth after it received information regarding his illegal assets in the name of his family members.

Singh, during the trial, denied the allegation, saying he has been implicated.
The counsel for Singh also told the court that CBI has taken the check period for the period of about 35 years i.E from 1965 to 2001 which has caused prejudice to the accused.
The advocate said that due to long gap, it was extremely difficult for Singh to produce records regarding his income.
"The various incomes earned through legal sources could not be proved by him due to lapse of time and non traceability of various documents," Singh's counsel said.