Aizawl: A Special Court (Prevention of Corruption Act) in Aizawl on Wednesday sentenced six people, including the younger brother of Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga, to one-year imprisonment in connection with the bogus receipt of compensation.
The six people named C Vanlalchhuana, Saiaithanga, C Rokhumi, Lalduhawma and PC Lalthazovi, all of them residents of Aizawl, and K Lalrawna of Champhai town were convicted by special judge HTC Lalrinchhana on Tuesday under section 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for receiving compensation through fictitious claims by forging fake land passes, authority letters and village council land passes.
All the convicted people received compensation amounting to over Rs. 2 crore for lands submerged by water due to the construction of a 60-megawatt Hydro Electric Project in the Tuirial river near Saipum village in the Kolasib district near the Assam border.
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The project undertaken by the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) Ltd was commissioned and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2017.
The convict C Vanlalchhuana, a resident of the Electric Veng locality in Aizawl, is the younger brother of Zoramthanga.
The special court, however, acquitted two others accused- H. Lianzela, the then assistant deputy commissioner (ADC) of Aizawl district and present director of state urban development and poverty alleviation (UD&PA) and Lalrinsanga, former village council president of Saipum village from the scam – as CBI, the investigating agency, failed to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
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The special court pronounced sentences for the six convicts on Wednesday as per which the six convicts were sentenced to undergo two years imprisonment.
However, the imprisonment term will run concurrently and all the convicts will undergo one year each imprisonment because they are becoming old and have no previous criminal cases, the court said.
The convicts were asked to pay Rs. 20 lakh each as a fine failing which they will undergo additional 10 years each imprisonment, it said.