Ex-Haryana speaker S S Kadian jailed for 7 years in graft case

INLD leader and ex-speaker of Haryana Assembly Satbir Singh Kadian was today sent to jail for seven years in the over 20 year-old IFFCO graft case by a special court which also slapped a fine of Rs 50 lakh on him.
Besides 66-year-old Kadian, Special CBI Judge Jitendra Kumar Mishra also awarded seven year jail term to 64-year-old Vinayak Narayan Deosthali, ex-Assistant Manager (Funds) of UCO Bank, 65-year-old IIT alumni Anil Kumar Malhotra and 70-year- old Sunil Gorawara, ex-Senior Manager (Deposits) of UCO Bank.
The court also sentenced 84-year-old Karuna Pati Pandey, ex-Senior Manager(Cash) of UCO Bank, to two years imprisonment considering his old age and that he was facing financial burden and had suffered punishment during trial for a single mistake or offence committed by him.

"The most peculiar fact in this case is that convict no. 1 (Kadian) is elected representative of the people of his constituency and he was also speaker of Haryana Assembly, may be after the commission of crime. It is his duty and duty of other convicts also that they should remain faithful to the State, otherwise integrity of the State would be at jeopardy.
"Kadian was chairman of IFFCO and he should feel proud that people have reposed faith upon him as it is his own argument that it was a political post. But instead of proving their faith, he committed the crime by joining hands with other convicts by hatching a conspiracy as per the illegal design of Harshad S Mehta (accused who has died)," it said.

Refusing to show any leniency to Kadian, the court said he was a role model for the country, including Haryana, and if such persons would be given minimum punishment, it will affect the morale of the entire nation.

According to the CBI, while working as Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited(IFFCO) chairman during February 1991 to April 1991, Kadian had invested Rs 32.90 crore, the surplus fund of IFFCO at lower rate of interest and caused a loss of over Rs 15 lakh to the organisation.
The court, in its 226-page judgement, also imposed a fine
of Rs 50 lakh, Rs five lakh, Rs 25 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50,000 on convicts Kadian, Deosthali, Malhotra, Gorawara and Pandey respectively.

It said that out of the total fine collected, 25 per cent should be paid to the CBI towards litigation expenses and 75 per cent to the State.
During the trial, the accused had denied the incriminating material against them and had claimed innocence.
All the five accused were held guilty for various offences including criminal conspiracy, dishonest misappropriation of movable property, criminal breach of trust by public servant under the IPC and criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
INLD chief and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay are also serving their 10-year jail term after conviction in teachers' recruitment scam. Another senior leader of INLD Sher Singh Badshami is also in jail.

Kadian had sought leniency in sentence on the ground that he was also an MLA and suffering from various ailments. He said he did not have knowledge about the transaction carried out by deceased accused Mehta and there was no evidence of embezzlement of funds against him.
The other convicts had also sought a lenient view saying they were aged and suffering from various ailments.
The court also took into consideration that the government floats various schemes for the betterment of farmers and the economy but said that in this case, all the convicts had joined hands for diversion of funds which were allowed and sanctioned in favour of accused Mehta only to provide him pecuniary benefits.

"The arguments raised by the convicts that there was no monetary loss to the bank has no value as aims and objectives of the trade policy of the State got frustrated due to the crime and conspiracy committed by convicts," it said.
The court agreed with the prosecutor's contention that many people adopted corruption as their way of living as it appeared the easiest route to get early success and easy wealth.
It said corruption has spread to such an extent in the society that it becomes "disease among professionals, medical professionals, educational professionals or even the custodian of the nation i.E. Politician of this country".