Tonger retired in 2013 and a chargesheet was filed against him in that year.
A local court in Indore has sentenced a former chief superintendent of the Madhya Pradesh fire department to four years of rigorous imprisonment for working as a gazetted officer for nearly 30 years by submitting a fake degree, a prosecution official said on Friday.
Additional sessions judge Sanjay Gupta on Thursday also imposed a fine of nearly Rs 12,000 on B S Tonger (70), who has studied up to only Class 10, said the official. Gazetted officers are executive, managerial or supervisorial level ranked public servants in India.
Tonger was sent to prison directly from the court after he was sentenced under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, he said.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the police had registered a case against Tonger on the complaint of a fire department inspector, the official said.
Tonger, who was initially posted as a lower division clerk (LDC) in an electricity supply unit of the Delhi government, came on deputation to the MP fire department, he said.
Citing the EOW probe report, the official said Tonger wiped out his old service record of the Delhi government and presented a fake degree in fire engineering in the name of a Nagpur-based college to the Madhya Pradesh government.
On the basis of the bogus degree, the prosecution official said Tonger managed to get himself posted as the chief superintendent of the fire department in Indore, a gazetted officer's post, even though he was ineligible for the position as he had studied only up to Class 10.
Tonger continued to work in the state government for nearly 30 years on the basis of the fake degree, the official said.
According to the official, Tonger retired in 2013 and a chargesheet was filed against him in that year.
Special public prosecutor Ashlesh Sharma produced 30 witnesses before the court to prove the charges against Tonger.
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