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Giridhar Gopal in Bhubaneswar
Former Orissa minister Sarat Rout who was sentenced to a year's rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 by a special judge of the state vigilance court in 1999 for acquiring property disproportionate to his income has been acquitted by a single judge bench of the Orissa high court.
Rout was the deputy chairman of the Orissa Planning Board and a minister in charge of information, public relation and culture department in J B Patnaik's Cabinet between 1985-89.
He was the first politician in the state to be convicted for acquiring unaccounted assets worth Rs 2,43,000.
He was among 13 former Congress minister whose houses were raided by the state vigilance department after the Biju Patnaik-headed Janata Dal came to power in 1990.
Earlier, the vigilance court acquitted two Congress ministers, Niranjan Patnaik and Kishore Chandra Patel, against whom the Biju Patnaik government had filed charge sheets.
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