Former J-K horticulture director gets 5-year jail in graft case

Former J-K horticulture director gets 5-year jail in graft case

A former director of Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Department was today sentenced to five-year simple imprisonment by a special anti-corruption court here for illegal appointment of over 100 class-IV employees.

Special Judge, Anti-corruption, M L Manhas convicted the former Director, Ghulam Ahmad Dar, and sentenced him to five-year simple imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him under the Prevention of Corruption Act, a spokesman of the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) said.

SVO had registered a case against Dar on April 17, 2002 following media reports that he had made number of illegal appointments of class-IV employees without adhering to the set procedure and norms during his tenure as Director Horticulture from November 1997 to June 1998.

"The allegations were substantiated during investigation and it was found that he had made as many as 121 appointments to Class-IV services from different parts of the state," the spokesman said.

The SVO had filed the charge sheet against the officer in the court on September 28, 2005.