Patna, Feb 15 (IANS) A special CBI court in Patna sentenced two years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 to a man in a cheating case involving Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on Saturday.
The accused was identified as Shailendra Srivastava, also known as Pappu Srivastava, a native of Patna.
The case, registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on January 14, 2002, pertained to Srivastava fraudulently installing three telephone lines under fictitious names at a single premises.
This deceitful act was intended to evade payment of substantial bills accrued on these three telephone lines.
He manipulated the categorisation of these connections from ‘Own Your Telephone’ (OYT) General to Non-OYT Special, facilitating their immediate installation based on certificates from the Director of Small Scale Industries (SSI) Units.
This category was intended exclusively for permanent SSI units, not provisional ones. Srivastava’s actions, in collusion with a Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO), resulted in a loss of approximately Rs 5.53 lakh to BSNL.
Following a thorough investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet on November 25, 2003.
After extensive legal proceedings of 23 years, the court found Srivastava guilty, leading to his sentencing on February 15, 2025, for two years of rigorous imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 60 thousand.
In a similar case, a CBI court in Kolkata sentenced Chandan Biswas, a former Telecom Office Assistant at BSNL Kolkata, to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 25,000 for fraudulently cheating BSNL in 2003.
Biswas, in conspiracy with others, manipulated official records, causing a loss of Rs 11,00,926 to the company.
–IANS
ajk/dan
