Indore: 3-year-jail to 3 ex-corporators, 5 officials and contractor

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Nine persons including three former corporators and five officials were sentenced to three years imprisonment by the special judge (Lokayukta) for their involvement in the Meghdoot Garden scam that took place nearly 20 years ago. All the accused were also fined Rs 5,000 each.

Special public prosecutor Ashish Khare said those found guilty were former BJP corporators Suraj Kairo, Rajendra Soni and Kailash Yadav, chief engineer Jagdish Dagaonkar, assistant architect Suresh Jain, garden superintendent Amanullah Khan, senior auditor Vidya Nidhi Srivastava, assistant director Rishi Prasad Gautam, and contractor Keshav Pandit.

Public prosecutor Khare said in February 2003 leader of the opposition in IMC, Chotu Shukla of the Congress party lodged complaint with the Lokayukta that the accused had spent Rs 2.50 crore in the name of beautification and development of Meghdoot Garden even though it was fully developed. The plan had not been approved and to avoid scrutiny, the work had been divided into small proposals and sanctioned under different work heads. Along with this, the accused also raised bills for the works that had been already done earlier.

The Lokayukta police in its investigations found that the accused had caused financial loss of Rs 33.60 lakh to the Indore Municipal Corporation.