MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently reduced the punishment imposed on three former officials of Southern Railway for misappropriating Rs 20.7 lakh funds in the guise of purchasing furniture for the broad gauge conversion work, which was undertaken at Villupuram-Vellore section between 2007 and 2011. Justice KK Ramakrishnan reduced the punishment on condition that the trio should pay compensation to the Southern Railway.
The order was passed on a batch of appeals filed by the CBI and the three officials — then senior divisional commercial manager AP Muthuramalingam, then divisional materials manager S Srinivasan and then store clerk R Inbaraj of Tiruchy division — against the judgment passed by the CBI Special Court, Madurai on November 14, 2019. The special court had sentenced Inbaraj to four years rigorous imprisonment for corruption, cheating and conspiracy charges but Muthuramalingam and Srinivasan had received a lesser punishment of two years RI as they were acquitted from the corruption charges. While the trio challenged their conviction and punishment, the CBI challenged the acquittal of Muthuramalingam and Srinivasan under the corruption charges.
Justice Ramakrishnan noted that the trio had falsified records and projected as if a huge amount of furniture was purchased but procured a lesser number of furniture and misappropriated the remaining Rs 20.7 lakh allotted for the purpose. The judge observed that the above actions clearly constitute misconduct as per Section 13(1)(d) read with 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Holding that the acquittal of Muthuramalingam and Srinivasan from the above charges is unsustainable, the judge allowed CBI's appeal and reversed the acquittal. However, considering that Inbaraj was aged over 63 years and has already lost his job due to the above offence, the judge modified his punishment to one year RI on condition that he deposit Rs 7 lakh compensation in favour of the deputy chief engineer of the construction division of the SR in Tambaram within 15 days, failing which the earlier sentence would stand restored. Similarly, Muthuramalingam and Srinivasan were also sentenced to one year RI by directing them to pay Rs 5 lakh each to the aforesaid department with the above conditions.