A Special CBI court on Monday sentenced S Vaikundarajan, managing partner of Chennai-based VV Minerals, to three years imprisonment, one Subbulakshmi to three years and the then Deputy Director with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Neeraj Khatri, to five years’ imprisonment in a corruption case.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹5 lakh on Vaikundarajan, ₹2 lakh on Subbulakshmi and ₹5 lakh on Khatri. The company has been fined ₹10 lakh. The three were convicted along with the company on February 1, in the case that was registered by the CBI on March 1, 2016.
The agency had accused that Khatri, as the then Deputy Director (Scientist-C) in the MoEF, accepted ₹4.13 lakh via a bank draft dated July 3, 2012, in favour of VIT University (Vellore) at the instance of Vaikundarajan. His son, Sidharth, had taken admission in a BTech (mechanical engineering) course of the university, for which the amount was deposited.
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In lieu of the bribe, the CBI…