10 Kerala Water Authority engineers convicted for corruption

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Enquiry commissioner and special judge (vigilance) here on Thursday convicted 11 people including 10 engineers of Kerala Water Authority and a contractor in connection with corruption of over Rs 70 lakh in the construction of a pump house in Kollam from 1989 to 1992.
Vigilance judge John K Illikkadan sentenced all the accused to two years rigorous imprisonment.While the engineers were slapped a penalty of Rs 1.25 lakh each, the contractor was ordered to remit a penalty of Rs 1 lakh.
The first accused in the case, former chief engineer K A Abdhu was exempted from trial considering health problems. The others found guilty were former superintending engineers A S Varghese, Babu J Punnooran, K R Sukumaran and M Sabbas, former executive engineers Barthlomew Birty, S Manikantan Nair, K G Ravi and N Viswanathan, former assistant executive engineers C P Deyadharan, P C Chacko and K Vijayamabika, former assistant engineer G Sundaresan and contractor Vinodlal of Kollam.