PANAJI
Goa's former State Election Commissioner R K Srivastava has been sentenced by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court to two years imprisonment and has been fined Rs 35,000 after being convicted in a case of reviving Shree Radhakrishna Co-operative Group Housing Society Limited, Delhi on the basis of forged documents.
Srivastava, who was formerly the Registrar of the Cooperative Societies for New Delhi has been convicted for the offence along with his then deputy Padam Dutt Sharma.
Following the completion of its investigation, CBI filed a chargesheet against 12 persons. Five of these accused were convicted by the trial court while five were acquitted. Two expired before the conclusion of the trial.
Three persons who have also been convicted include Subhash Chander, Mayank Goswami and Ashwani Sharma. Each of them has been awarded four years of rigorous imprisonment along with a certain fine amount.
The case was taken over by the CBI in 2006 after orders from the Delhi High Court.
Initially, the CBI had booked the case in 2006 against Subhash Chander, a private person and some others for criminal conspiracy hatched with officials of RCS, New Delhi in connection with the revival of the defunct Shree Radhakrishna Co-op. Group Housing Society Limited, Delhi. Forged documents were found to have been used in this process.
The 1984-batch IAS officer from AGMU cadre had retired as Goa's State Election Commissioner in the first week of November citing ‘personal reasons’. He held this post since January 2017. Prior to that, from October 2014 to December 2016, he served as the Chief Secretary of Goa.
Over the years, Srivastava has served as the Deputy Commissioner of four districts in Arunachal Pradesh and has held various positions in the Government of Delhi and Municipal Corporation of Delhi. He was posted as the Principal Secretary for Urban Development, Government of Delhi and later as the Principal Secretary in various departments in the Government of Goa. He has also served as the Chief Electoral Officer for Delhi, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and was appointed by the Election Commissioner of India as an observer on seven different occasions.
