Flour mill owner gets a year in jail for siphoning BPL wheat

Shimla: Overturning the judicial order of a trail court, the Himachal High Court on Wednesday sentenced flour mill owner Pawan Kumar Sahni to one year of rigorous imprisonment after his involvement in siphoning of wheat meant of BPL families was established.

Passing the order, a division bench consisting of Justice Surjit Singh and Justice Rajiv Sharma held Sahni owner of Giri Raj Atta Mill at Deonghat guilty under a Prevention of Corruption case registered in May 2003.

Besides the year in jail handed out, the court also fined the mill owner Rs 20,000 under Sections 120-B, 409, 218 & 420 of IPC and Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Trial court of Special Judge, Solan had acquitted all four accused persons, which included Sahni, in a case of siphoning off wheat that was meant for distribution to families living below poverty line.

The state appealed the acquittal in the High Court, who in May 2011 held 3 persons guilty of the crime.

While Sudershan Kumar who was storekeeper at HP State Civil Supplies Corporation store in Chambaghat and helper Ramesh Chand were handed down a year in jail, Sahni after being presented before the court was handed out his sentence today.

Acting on a tip off anti-corruption bureau, Solan had intercepted a truck carrying 130 bags of wheat in May, 2003 that was loaded from the Chambaghat store and was diverted to the flower mill.

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5 Comments

  1. says: PradeepR

    Good job! Now it is time also to throw behind bars those “poor” families in the upper himachal who are diverting highly subsidized wheat, meant for them, to the main markets in lower areas and minting money by selling it off.

    1. says: deepak sahni

      @pradeep
      The judges have sentenced him only on the assumptions . they do not have any guranteed proof. the man is highly reputed business man of himachal pradesh. brother you better check out the whole story before commenting on the posts. waiting eagerly for your reply on the subject.
      regards ,
      deepak sahni,
      [email protected].

  2. says: PradeepR

    I don’t know if you know that criticizing the judges for their judgement at a public forum is punishable offence. It is called Contempt of Court. But what I know for sure is that it is not going to help your case.
    Secondly I don’t think you are at the right forum to push for your case. Hill Post journalists can not write anything other than what is written there in the judgement. Which they have faithfully represented. As a reader, I have just reacted, just like any ordinary citizen would have, fed up with daily overdose of news on corruption in the officialdom.
    If Mr Pawan Kumar SAHNI is related to you, your agitation is understandable. But my sincere advice in that case would that the right forum for you is the same division bench of High Court by the way of challenging the sentence through a review petition. If the judgement is based on mere “assumptions” as you claim, and if your lawyer proves it, the court will certainly strike it down. If it doesn’t, there is Supreme Court. Good Luck!

  3. says: DEEPAK SAHNI

    thanks brother for showing your kind help…..
    i am not sayin that commenting on a forum is bad… but sayin the judgments based is on mere assumptions ….. they dont hav an exact proof for their orders….
    can u plzzz tell me in an elaboration on the review petition…..
    thanks…….

  4. says: DEEPAK SAHNI

    and forgot to tell u that this review petition is possible only if the judgement bench is single bench….
    but if its double bench then it is not possible…
    and the bench was double…….

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