Mohali: A special CBI court in Mohali has convicted a suspended executive engineer (XEN) of the Punjab public works department (buildings and roads) in a corruption and forgery case involving fraudulent bills worth Rs 1.62 crore raised to obtain govt funds.Special CBI judge Baljinder Singh Sra convicted Joginder Singh, 58, former XEN, provincial division, PWD (B&R), Mansa, under the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC provisions relating to cheating, forgery and use of forged documents. He was also fined Rs 1 lakh.The prosecution said the case stemmed from a Punjab vigilance bureau inquiry. In May 2011, Singh was given additional charge of supervising development works executed by the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) in Mansa district.According to the investigation, he prepared a forged running bill for road construction work at Mansa Mandi in the name of a contractor, falsely showing it as prepared and signed by officials of the BDA. The forged bill was passed and forwarded to the authority, which released Rs 1.6 crore.Of the amount, about Rs 73 lakh was released to the contractor after deductions, while the remaining Rs 83 lakh was allegedly diverted as advance payments to other contractors.The prosecution further alleged that Singh later sought another Rs 2 crore from the BDA for development works in mandis at Sardulgarh, Budhlada, Bhikhi and Mansa City. The authority released Rs 1 crore in two instalments, which was also used for advance payments to contractors.During the investigation, statements of the concerned SDO and junior engineer established that they had neither prepared nor signed the disputed bills and that the signatures had been forged. The inquiry also found that the genuine bill prepared by the junior engineer was for Rs 73.1 lakh, while the forged bill passed by the accused was for Rs 73.42 lakh.The court held that although the excess amount was later adjusted through advance payments, the evidence established that the accused had dishonestly prepared forged bills to obtain unlawful financial gain and cause wrongful loss to the govt. It observed that had the works not been transferred back to the BDA, the remaining amount could have been misappropriated.The Vigilance Bureau registered the FIR on May 31, 2013. Singh was arrested on June 5, 2013, and, after trial, was convicted on all charges. The court ordered all sentences to run concurrently and granted him the benefit of set-off for the period already spent in judicial custody.
