An additional district and sessions court in Mangaluru sentenced a retired executive engineer with the minor irrigation department to six years simple imprisonment and charged him with ₹2.5 crore fine for amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of income. He has to undergo another 18 months simple imprisonment upon failure to pay the fine.
Convict N.T. Rajagopal, now residing in Sri Krishna Balaji Layout, Kannarpady, Udupi, was directed to pay ₹2.5 crore fine even if he serves default sentence in lieu of fine, said III Additional District and Sessions Judge B.B. Jakati in the judgement pronounced on July 12, 2022. He sentenced the convict under Section 13 (1)(e), read with Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
If the convict fails to pay the fine, the government should recover the amount from him under Section 421 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, where a court may issue warrant for sale of movable property of the offender or issue a warrant to the Deputy Commissioner to recover the fine as the arrears of land revenue from movable or immovable properties, or both.
Rajagopal was working as an executive engineer with the minor irrigation department at its office in P.M. Rao Road in Mangaluru, when the Lokayukta police booked him for possessing assets disproportionate to known sources of income on March 16, 2010.
Subsequently, he was transferred to Haliyal in Uttara Kannada district in the same department. The convict retired as executive engineer, Zilla Panchayat engineering division, Yadagiri, on October 30, 2016. Presently, he was in judicial custody at the Mangaluru District Prison.
Lokayukta Deputy Superintendent of Police Sadananda Vernekar had conducted the investigation and submitted the chargesheet to the court. Ravindra Munnipady, Special Public Prosecutor, had conducted the prosecution.
