Hyderabad, Dec 2 (IANS) A Special CBI Court sentenced two postal department officials who misappropriated Rs 27.27 lakh during demonetisation to two years’ Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) along with a fine of Rs 65,000 each, an official said on Tuesday.

Special CBI Court in Hyderabad, on Monday, convicted and sentenced Adapa Srinivas, the then Postal Assistant (Treasurer), and U. Rajyalakshmi, the then Postal Assistant, of Humayun Nagar Sub-Post Office, Hyderabad, Telangana.

The two were held guilty of breach of trust and cheating and sentenced to undergo two Years’ Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) with a fine of Rs 65,000 each.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the instant case on August 31, 2017, based on a written complaint of the Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Hyderabad City Division.

It was alleged that Srinivas and Lakshmi entered into a criminal conspiracy between November 10, 2016 and November 24, 2016 at the time of demonetisation of old currency notes and in pursuance of the same, they fraudulently exchanged Withdrawn Old Series (WOS) of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination currency notes with new currency notes worth Rs 27,27,397 without receiving required Annexure-II forms and falsified the records to cover up the misappropriation.

Earlier in a separate case, the federal probe agency secured two years ‘ jail each for two telecom department officials for involvement in an Rs 88 lakh international telephone call fraud.

The Special CBI Court, Lucknow, sentenced Hari Ram Shukla and Gulab Chand Chaurasia – former Sub-Divisional Engineers (SDE), Group Exchange, BSNL, Gorakhpur – to two years’ imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10 lakh each.

A third accused, Siyaram Agrahari, was acquitted of all the charges levelled against him, the CBI said in a statement.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the case on September 18, 2008, based on information against Hari Ram Shukla, the then SDE Group Exchange, BSNL, Gorakhpur; Gulab Chand Chaurasia, the then SDE Group Exchange, BSNL, Gorakhpur; and Siya Ram Agrahari, the then Junior Telecom Officer, BSNL, Gorakhpur.

The probe agency had also filed cases against various Public Call Office (PCO) owners on the allegation that the accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy to illegally provide an international call facility.

The racket involved six PCO owners and 18 individual telephone subscribers who, between September 2003 and September 2004, caused a loss to the government’s telecom company by unauthorisedly making international telephone calls.

–IANS

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