Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A local court, on Monday, issued orders for confiscation of property worth Rs 33 lakh of a patwari who was found guilty in a disproportionate assets case. The case had been going on for the past 11 years after Lokayukta raids in 2010 revealed his illegal income.
The case was heard in the court of special judge Gangacharan Dubey and was prosecuted by SPP Mahendra Chaturvedi. It was the 19th case in a row which he prosecuted on behalf of the Lokayukta and won.
SPP Chaturvedi said that the accused, Mahesh Depan, 36, was convicted by the court which found him guilty in a case registered under sections of the Anti-Corruption Act of 1988. He said that, in 1997, he joined on compassionate grounds in his father’s place. Since 2004, it came to notice that he took bribes in one form or another.
In March 2010, a team of the Lokayukta raided his house. During the search, the Lokayukta team recovered documents of immovable property worth lakhs of rupees, as well as moveable property worth more than his declared income.
SPP Chaturvedi said that, according to the legal income of the accused patwari, he would have earned Rs 1,706,598 but he owned property worth Rs 5,096,423 which is just double his legal income.
After his property was searched, it was found that he owned assets worth Rs 3,389,825 which was illegal and he has earned it from his present job.
Illegal assets of Patwari
The properties which were found illegal included one plot of 10x20 sq.ft area in Ujjain and one house in Ujjain worth around Rs 1,985,960, a truck worth Rs 1,351,600, a firearm worth Rs 25,000, cash worth Rs 11,770 and a bank balance of Rs 7,578 in different banks
RES’s Rs 2.69 Cr property confiscated
§ Earlier, in March 2021, too, a special court under judge Alok Mishra ordered confiscation of the moveable and immoveable assets of superintendent engineer late Mahendra Kumar Jain, posted with the Rural Engineering Services (RES), worth Rs 2.69 crore in unaccounted property after Lokayukta raids in 2011 revealed his illegal income
§ The case was prosecuted by special public prosecutor Mahendra Kumar Chaturvedi. SPP Chaturvedi said that Jain had properties in many posh areas of the city, including Vijay Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Siddharth Nagar and others
