Special Court hears ‘consideration’ of corruption charges against Golay

ORDER ON THE CHARGES TO BE DELIVERED ON 05 NOV
GANGTOK, 30 Oct: The Special Court, Prevention of Corruption Act, East District at Gangtok will announce its order on charges leveled against dissident SDF MLA, PS Tamang [Golay] on Monday. It will be a big day on 05 November for Mr. Tamang as he may well be acquitted if the court is not impressed with the charges of corruption as framed by the Vigilance Directorate. In the event that the charges are considered to be sustainable, the trial phase on the Vigilance case against the MLA will begin.
Today, the Special Court conducted a comprehensive hearing on the ‘consideration of charges’ as leveled against Mr. Tamang. Sources inform that the ‘consideration of charges’ means whether the case, as made out, could be sustained or not.
After hearing both parties at length, the Court set the date of 05 November for its Order on the Consideration of Charges.
Mr. Tamang was present at the court today. Apart from him, there are 4 others accused in this Vigilance case.
The Vigilance case was initiated soon after the 2009 general elections. The case itself was initiated by Opposition party members in the year 2003 who had gone to Court with allegations of corruption against the former Minister and four others when Mr. Tamang was Minister for Animal Husbandry and the Court directed Vigilance to investigate.
He, along with the 4 others, was accused of criminal conspiracy, misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and criminal misconduct.
The case pertains to a welfare scheme of the State initiated in 1995 of free distribution of cows to farmers, initially in 18 constituencies. A year later, the Department proposed to implement the second phase covering 550 farmers in 22 constituencies at an estimated cost of Rs. 75 lakh.
However, as the Vigilance police is reportedly claiming, the department “did not engage in fair selection” of suppliers for the supply of cows and payments were released to them without verification or basis. Vigilance enquiries had revealed that the then minister ordered that a sum of Rs. 8.50 lakh be handed over to an employee of the department and further the Minister himself is alleged to have received two cheques amounting to Rs. 2.50 lakh.
There were also overpayments to some suppliers, both of whom were also indicted in the case. In some instances the cheques were alleged to have been received and encashed by unknown or unauthorized persons. Apart from the above, it was also alleged by the Vigilance that the entire purchase transaction was done without following any purchase formalities which finally led to the case being chargesheeted in 2009.