A CBI court today convicted a woman for misappropriating funds of over Rs 1 lakh during her posting as the booking clerk in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation in 1997.

Usha Rani is the wife of a local Congress worker and former MC councillor Balraj Singh.

She has been sentenced to five years in jail. The Special CBI court of Jagdeep Jain convicted Rani for criminal breach of trust under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The case was registered by the CBI in 2002 after receiving ‘secret information’ against Rani.

She was posted as the booking clerk at the MC between July 1997 and November 2000. Rani was dismissed after a case was registered.

The MC provides places to the public at a fixed rate to hold private functions and Rani was the booking clerk. She was to receive applications, cash, issue permission letters, inform concerned in-charge regarding bookings and deposit the money collected with the civic body. She was accused of forging documents like application forms, including those of six watermelon sellers, and of giving them false certificates.

Rani was accused of misappropriating funds received from more than 40 applicants. Pawan Kumar Dogra, public prosecutor for the CBI, said more than 50 witnesses, including MC officials and applicants, were examined in the CBI court.

The FIR states that Rani received Rs 3,000 for booking two halls at the Manimajra community centre from one Harpal Singh even as the rate fixed by the MC was Rs 2,250.

“She conned several applicants in the same way thus making the amount of misappropriation huge,” said Dogra.

Rani was also required to issue original receipt to an applicant while keeping a copy of it for the records and forwarding another to the supervisory in-charge.