Indian Army's 2 retd Lt Colonels, Major among 8 jailed in MES scam

New Delhi, July 23

Over 36 years after the CBI registered a case, a special court in Lucknow has sentenced eight persons, including two retired Lt Colonels and a Major, to three-year imprisonment in a Rs 3.82-crore scam related to local purchases made at inflated rates for the Military Engineer Services (MES), officials said today.

36-year-old case

The CBI lodged an FIR in Sept 1986 in a Rs 3.82 crore scam related to local purchases made at inflated rates for the MES in Allahabad

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The CBI said Lt Col Satya Pal Sharma (retd), then posted as Commander Works Engineer (CWE), MES, Allahabad (Colonel Administration, Command Station, Srinagar) was sentenced by the special court recently. The others sentenced along with him are YK Uppal, then Garrison Engineer (West); KS Saini (Lt Colonel), then Garrison Engineer (West); Virendra Kumar Jain, then Garrison Engineer (East); and SS Thakkar (Major), then Garrison Engineer (Air Force), Bamrauli, all posted in Allahabad (now Prayagraj), the agency said in a statement. The court also sentenced Ashok Kumar Deora, Anil Kumar Deora and Pawan Kumar Deora, all proprietors and partners of different fictitious firms. The CBI had registered the case on September 25, 1986, on the allegations of huge local purchases made at exorbitant rates between November 1983 and November 1985 in violation of norms.

“The amount may look small in today’s terms, but it was a huge figure when the scam transpired,” a senior CBI official said. The agency had filed its chargesheet on December 19, 1990. The Allahabad High Court stayed the proceedings in 2002, which was vacated after 17 years in 2019 and the trial began, the officials said.