Ex-SAIL officer gets jail term in graft case

New Delhi: A Special CBI court in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh on Friday sentenced an ex-SAIL executive to two years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 for conspiring to award 19 NCL contracts worth more than Rs 6.82 crore to a private company in Uttar Pradesh.

The court also sentenced Sourabh Agarwal and Gaurav Agarwal, both partners in M/s Anil Kumar, the private company that received the contracts.

The then Deputy Manager (F&A) in SAIL, NK Biswas was posted at the state-run company's Raw Material Department (RMD) in the Bhawanathpur Lime Stone Mines in Jharkhand's Garhwa when the case came to light.

The probe agency had registered the case for offences committed between the years 2003-06. The agency had then alleged that the NCL contracts were awarded to Anil Kumar on the basis of false past experience certificates.

The partners had passed these documents off as originals issued by the Raw Material Department, Steel Authority of India Ltd, Bhawanathpur with help from Biswas.