Ex-Defence Ministry officials convicted in cheating case

The trio were convicted on charges of cheating,criminal conspiracy and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

A city court Tuesday convicted a retired lieutenant colonel,a retired captain and an audit officer in the defence services for extracting over Rs 7 crore from public coffers through forged bills. The trio were convicted on charges of cheating,criminal conspiracy and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

From 1994-1997,the then deputy director of Ordinance Services Lt. Col. (Retd) P R S Rao colluded with a Captain (Retd) I B S Uppal to present 20 bills. According to the chargesheet,the bills were drawn under fictitious names for consignments that were neither demanded nor received.

Uppal,who retired from the Army in 1991,did not surrender his identity card to gain access to defence establishments and was in charge of raising the bogus bills.

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Their conspiracy was taken further with the assistance of A K Sharma,the then assistant audit officer who did not audit the bills. He allegedly received illegal gratification to the tune of Rs 9 lakh. Rao,Uppal and Sharma were charged with cheating Government of India to the tune of Rs 7,31,95,480.

Besides the three officials,nine other staff members of the Controller of Defence Accounts were booked and subsequently discharged from the case in 2005. The court will hear arguments on the quantum of the sentence on October 25.

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