Jail sentence for Bhandari

Gangtok, Oct. 26: Former Sikkim chief minister and state Congress president Nar Bahadur Bhandari was sentenced to six months of imprisonment in a corruption case related to a water supply project of the rural development department.

S.W. Lepcha, the designated CBI judge, also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on Bhandari and granted him bail for 60 days to enable him to appeal to a higher court. Along with Bhandari, the court also convicted former chief secretary P.K. Pradhan and eight contractors. All of them were awarded the same punishment.

The judge ordered that the guilty would serve an additional one-month sentence if they failed to pay the fine.

Yesterday, the court had found Bhandari and the other accused guilty of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI had registered the case against 17 people, including Bhandari, in 1984 on the recommendations of B.B. Gooroong, the then chief minister. Gooroong was at the helm of the state from May 11 to 24 in 1984 after ousting Bhandari from the Congress.

Bhandari was the chief minister from 1979 till 1994. After Gooroong, he came back to power again in 1985 and stayed on till 1994.

Gooroong had alleged that Bhandari and Pradhan had used their positions in office to award contracts of the water supply project to their “favoured” contractors.

Court sources said the CBI was asked to inquire if Bhandari and Pradhan had awarded the contracts at a higher rate that had cost the Sikkim government over Rs 2.41 lakh extra.

This was also the first case to be registered in Sikkim by the CBI, the sources added.

In 2003, the CBI had framed charges against Bhandari and Pradhan accusing them of “criminal misconduct” and entering into a “criminal conspiracy” with 13 contractors by awarding them the work while flouting all norms. Five of the contractors have died since 1984.

Bhandari and Pradhan, who was then the secretary of the rural development department, was also accused of ignoring the recommendations of the tender committee which led to a loss to the state exchequer, the CBI chargesheet read.

Bhaskar Raj Pradhan, the counsel for Bhandari, said his client would appeal in a higher court. “I have examined the judgment and found serious errors in dealing with facts as well as the law,” he added.