Agartala, Apr 4 (IANS): A BDO (block development officer) and five Tripura government officials were Wednesday sentenced to different jail terms by a local court for embezzling Rs.41 lakh in 2005, an official said.

"A judicial magistrate's court awarded three years rigorous imprisonment to Khagendra Reang, a BDO of Dasda block in northern Tripura for misappropriation of government funds of Rs.41.25 lakh," a district administration official told reporters.

The official said that five other officials, including two engineers, a cashier, two panchayat secretaries were also sentenced between eight months to one year in jail by the court, which also imposed a fine of Rs.10,000 to all the accused.

Reang, a senior Tripura civil service official, and other officials of Dasda block, 180 km north of here, had drawn a fund of Rs.41.25 lakh but did not construct houses under the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) for the 150 poor families who were displaced in 2004 from their villages in a remote areas of northern Tripura due to terrorism.

The official said that subsequently, the matter came to the notice of the authorities and a case was filed with the police against the BDO and the other officials, who had immediately suspended from service.

The state government later handed over the case to CID (Criminal Investigation Department) of state police.

The departmental inquiry of the misappropriation of government funds, stated to be much higher than Rs.41.25 lakh, still going on.