Kerala - Kozhikode   

Three-year jail term for former panchayat president

Kozhikode: The Mananthavadi Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Wednesday awarded three years imprisonment to the former president of a grama panchayat in Wayanad district for siphoning off Rs.1.85 lakh from the Jawhar Rozgar Yojna (JRY) scheme fund 14 years ago.

Magistrate Santosh Lukka found Shakuntala Shanmughan, former president of Padinjarathara grama panchayat, guilty of forging signatures of the grama panchayat secretary and stealing the money. A contractor, Shahid Babu alias M.V. Varkey, involved in the case was also sentenced to three years imprisonment.

The court acquitted the third accused in the case, former panchayat secretary V.P. Sukumaran.

The JRY was a Centrally-sponsored food-for-work scheme.

The Kozhikode Crime Branch- Criminal Investigation Department led by Superintendent of Police T.V. Kamalakshan investigated the case that had its genesis in January 1994.

The court also released Shanmughan, husband of Shakuntala, on probation for intimidating Crime Branch Deputy Superintendent of Police P.S. Sakaria during the investigations.

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