Fake transportation bills: Major convicted

The central bureau of investigation (CBI) special court, Haryana, on Tuesday convicted a retired Major and a transporter for furnishing fake bills. The vehicle numbers submitted by the accused for transporting troops of Western Command turned out to be those of scooters.

When the chargesheet was filed Major JP Mishra had retired from the army. In 2005, under him, troops were to be sent to Himachal area. The bills of ` 3.5 lakh were raised through transporter KK Kakkar for providing buses for troops.

The CBI filed the case under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against three people — Major Mishra and transporters Krishan Kumar and Kadasi Ram. But Kadasi Ram was acquitted.

During the trial, CBI counsel DS Chawla argued that the bills were fake and troops could not be transported through scooters.
“The defence took the plea that the case should have been tried by a military court and no prosecution sanction had been taken against Mishra. We told the court the case might not have come in the light of military authorities and as far as prosecution sanction was concerned, the accused major had already retired,” said Chawla.

The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on June 5.