26/05/2017

RJD leader Illiyas Hussain acquitted in bitumen scam case





Patna,(BiharTimes): A special CBI judge Sarvjeet on Wednesday acquitted former road construction minister and senior RJD leader, Mohammad Illiyas Hussain and four others in the 22-year old bitumen scam.

However, the court sentenced transporter Krishna Kumar Kedia to three years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 4.5 lakh on him.

The other four absolved are Mohammad  Mujtaba Ahmed, the then deputy director (purchase) of the road construction department, former head clerk of the department, Shobha Sinha, Ramadhar Thakur and a transporter Praveen Chharia due to lack of clinching evidence against them.

Kedia was immediately taken into custody and forwarded to Beur Central Jail.

Illiyas is the RJD MLA from Dehri in Rohtas district. He, along with five others, had been charged with misappropriation of bitumen worth Rs 39 lakh when he was minister for road construction in the Lalu Prasad cabinet in 1994-95.

His name  figured in four out of the 40 bitumen-related cases at the Patna CBI court. On June 16, 2016, Kedia, proprietor of Calcutta-based company M/s Cosmo Transport, was sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 60,000.

The scam surfaced after an FIR was lodged at a police station in Madhepura district on the statement of the then engineer of road construction department (Madhepura road division) Sonelal Saha on September 9, 1996. The CBI took over to investigate the swindling of public funds and lodged a fresh case on March 17, 1997.

 

 

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