Three-year jail for Kaikalur MLA in fraud case

Hyderabad,Nov 10: Former MLA Yerneni Raja Ramachander from Kaikalur in Krishna  district as on Tuesday  sentenced to three years rigorousimprisonment by the Cbi Special court in Nampalli.Apart from undergoing three years  rigorous imprisonment the former MLA has to pay Rs 11,000 as fine.The court order will come into force from December 10 thus giving the former MLA a respite to appeal  in the higher court.In  1992 the police  booked a case against Ramachander for allegedly submitting false medical bills on his and wife's behalf for reimbursement from public exchequer.As reported  earlier  the Andhra Pradesh Government moved heaven and earth to extricate  Ramachander for filing false medical bills for reimbursement. Instead of protecting the tax payers and following the law,AP Govt tried every trick in the book to get the MLA off the book.

The High Court affirmed the trial judge's ruling following which the government and the MLA appealed in the apex court.The Supreme Court has held that the Ethics Committee of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature has no jurisdiction to recommend withdrawal of a criminal case pending against a former MLA for submission of false medical bills.A Bench consisting of Justices S.B. Sinha and Deepak Verma dismissed appeals filed by the former MLA, Yerneni Raja Ramachander alias Rajababu, and the government against a judgment of the High Court, which upheld the March 17, 2008 trial court order refusing to grant sanction for withdrawal of the case. The Bench also directed the government to pay Rs. 1 lakh to the State Legal Services Authority within four weeks.