A former deputy director of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has been awarded a three jail term by a special court here for taking bribe to grant environmental clearance to an Orissa-based power and steel company in 2013.
49-year old Neeraj Khatri was arrested in January 2013 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 7 lakh for granting environmental clearance for the company -- Chariot Steel and Power Pvt Ltd. (CSPPL).
Special CBI Judge N K Malhotra also sentenced the company's Managing Director Suresh Joshi to three years in jail, while handing down jail terms of two and one years to middlemen--Raisri Achutananda Srichandan and his son Raisri Chinmaya Srichandan respectively.
The court also imposed varied amounts as fine on convicts and said that it was not a case warranting award of maximum sentence as there were mitigating circumstances in their favour.
According to public prosecutor Shampa Tikait, Srichandans owned S S Environics, a Bhubaneswar-based consultant firm which lobbied for environment clearance (EC) for CSPPL's Raiboga limestone mine in Orissa.
The plea for grant of EC was scheduled for consideration by the reconstituted Expert Appraisal Committee (Non-Coal Mining), headed by a joint secretary-level officer, a day after Khatri was arrested.
Khatri was apprehended while accepting the bribe from co-accused Chinmaya outside a posh hotel at Mehrauli in south Delhi.
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