Gangtok: Sikkim Congress president and
former CM Nar Bahadur Bhandari has surrendered to
Sikkim High Court after being convicted in a decades-old
corruption case and has been sent to jail and later to a
hospital due to cardiac complications.
Bhandari surrendered to the court of Justice SP
Wangdi on Wednesday, two days after the high court upheld his
conviction in the lower court but commuted his punishment from
six months' simple imprisonment to one month's.
He was convicted by the trial court on October 25,
2008, in a Prevention of Corruption Act case relating to rural
water supply scheme undertaken during Bhandari's first term as
chief minister between 1979 and 1984.
Bhandari, who was chief minister thrice, was taken to
Rongyek jail from the High Court, but after he complained of
chest pain, he was taken to a hospital where he was admitted.
He told media persons at the court that he was ready
to go to jail for the people of Sikkim.
He said he would return to politics after serving his
prison term.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, August 11, 2011, 17:48