Agartala, Dec 1 (IANS) A 75-year-old former Tripura government official was Thursday sentenced to three years in jail by a local court for embezzling Rs.20,000 in 1982, an official said.

West Tripura district Chief Judicial Magistrate T.C.Roy Bhowmik sentenced Dayal Sundar Das to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs.30,000.

Das, then a senior official of West Tripura district administration, hired some buses to carry pilgrims to a religious fair in southern Tripura. He had drawn the fund of Rs.20,111 but did not pay the bus operator – the government-run Tripura Road Transport Corporation, said an official of the district administration.

The official told reporters that subsequently, the matter came to the notice of the authorities and a case was filed against Das. He was immediately suspended from service. But the case dragged on for 29 years.