Guwahati: A court in Guwahati has sentenced four officials of Assam State Housing Board to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for forgery of housing loans in the name of fictitious persons.
The Court of Special Judge, Assam Md Mazed Ali, yesterday convicted the Board`s Zonal Housing Officer Ram Nath Doley, Housing Officer Hemanta Bora, Junior Engineer Dhanjit Sarma and Assistant Engineer Partha Pratim Sarma for forgery of housing loans in the name of fictitious persons. The Court, however, acquitted former Commissioner of the Board Mahendra Bora and Housing Officer Bhola Nath Hazarika for lack of evidence.
The case was investigated by the Vigilance and Anti- corruption wing of Assam police after registering a case on December 6, 1999.
Investigations revealed that 276 loan applications out of total 332 applications against which the board had disbursed housing loans to the tune of around Rs one crore were made in the name of fictitious persons. PTI