Ex-municipal council chairman, two others jailed in graft case

A former municipal council chairperson was on Monday sentenced to two years in jail for misusing her official position 20 years ago and causing revenue loss to the public exchequer in a corruption case.

Special Anti-Corruption Court of Session Judge Deepak Kumar also imposed a penalty of Rs two lakh on Jaislmer Municipal Council's former Chairperson Vimla Vaishnav.

Vaishnav was convicted in the corruption case along with two others, each of whom were sentenced to jail for a year along with a penalty of Rs one lakh each.

Assistant Public Prosecutor N K Sankhla said the case dated back to 1999 when Vaishnav, in connivance with the then Municipal Commissioner Kantilal Dave regularized two plots without levying any penalty and interest on payments due since 1993.

The plots on Geeta Ashram Road in Jaislmer were allocated to Mahesh Kumar and Anand Kumar in an auction by the council in 1993, but they had not cleared their dues till 1999, said Sankhla.

Vaishnav and Dave, however, regularized the plots without charging any penalty and interest on dues by allottees, causing a revenue loss of Rs 6.50 lakh to the exchequer, he said.

The court said both chairman and the commissioner misused their official positions and granted undue advantage to the allottees by exempting charges on dues for their plots.

The two allottees, however, argued that they had their plots regularized as per the rules and no violation, whatsoever, has been committed in the process. But the court rejected their arguments.

Taking a serious note of the misusing of power, judge Kumar sentenced Vishnav to two years and Mahesh Kumar and Anand Kumar to one year each in jail.

Municipal Commissioner Dave, however, had died during the pendency of the trial.