Kasaragod: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) court in Thalassery sentenced a government school attender to 12 years in prison and fined him Rs 3.5 lakh for embezzling Rs 48,861 from 18 teachers 26 years ago.

A Harikeshavan (56), who was the attender at Government Vocational Higher Secondary School in Kasaragod's Mogral, was found guilty on seven counts of corruption and fraud by Judge A Ramakrishnan, said VACB public prosecutor Geethakumari K. The judge suspended the sentence and let him off on bail for him to appeal against the verdict, she said.

Harikeshav, a native of Kodakkad in Kasaragod's Cheruvathur grama panchayat, is still employed as an attender and has two more years of service. Going by precedent, he may lose his job because of the conviction and will be reinstated only if gets the order reserved by a higher court, said the public prosecutor.

Harikeshav skimmed money from 18 teachers between April and November 1998, when he was the attender of the GVHSS, Mogral. The school did not have a clerk during that period, and Harikeshav took on the responsibility. He manipulated teachers' pay bills and siphoned off the monthly instalment they repaid towards the loans taken from the General Provident Fund. He deducted the amount from their salaries but did not deposit it into their GPF accounts, said Adv Geethakumari. He also used to inflate the treasury bills and pocket the excess amount, she said.

VACB Judge A Ramakrishnan sentenced Harikeshav to one year each for criminal misconduct by a public servant under Section 13 (1) (c) and Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and two years each under IPC's Section 409 (criminal breach of trust), Section 468 (forgery), Section 471 (using forged document), Section 477 (A) (fraud by a clerk), and Section 420 (cheating).

As the sentences would run concurrently, he must serve only two years in prison if the conviction is upheld. The court also fined him Rs 50,000 under each of the seven sections. "If he pays the fine, the court ruled that each of the 18 teachers should receive Rs 5,000," said Adv Ushakumari.