Aizawl: A Special court (Prevention of Corruption Act) in Aizawl on Friday convicted a woman, who previously worked as a bill assistant under Mizoram law and judicial department, for misappropriating Rs. 1 crore.
Special judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) H.T.C Lalrinchhana convicted Lydia Lalhruaitluangi, who served as Lower Division Clerk (muster roll) or casual worker in the Mizoram law and judicial department between 2012 to 21.08.2018 for misappropriating Rs. 1 crore by forging fake and bogus bills.
The court convicted her under sections 13 (1) (a), (b)/13(2) P.C. Act, 1988 and under sections 406/420/468/471 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The quantum of punishment will be announced by the special court on October 30. The special court also remanded the convict to judicial custody till sentence hearing on Monday.
The graft case surfaced in September 2018 when a written FIR was filed by an under secretary of law and judicial department to the effect that they had detected a case of misappropriation involving lakhs of rupees mainly from the budget head “Professional Service” allocated for payment of professional fees of government advocates.
Lydia, who worked on Muster Roll bases, has been entrusted with assisting cashier since September 2013 and performed the task of bill assistant till 6 August, 2018.
She was arrested in October 2018 and was sent to judicial custody. The prosecution found that Lydia had misappropriated Rs. 1 crore from budget head Professional Service meant for professional fees of government advocates since 2015 by making fake and bogus bills and sanction orders.
She deposited and parked the misappropriated money to the bank accounts of three of her family members.
The special court, however, acquitted the father, mother and sister of Lydia for lack of cogent and plausible evidence.