New Delhi, Oct 31 : A Special CBI Court in Delhi on Friday sentenced 13 convicts, including a retired IAS official, to jail terms varying from two to five years in the multi-crore rupee Cooperative Group Housing Society (CGHS) scam involving forgery and corruption to revive defunct societies to dupe thousands of prospective homebuyers in the Capital.

The 13 accused were punished in connection with wrongdoing related to the Safadarjung Co-operative Group Housing Society Case, the CBI said in a statement.

Convicts Karamvir Singh, Narender Kumar, Maha Nan Sharma, Pankaj Madan, Ahawni Sharma, Ashutosh Pant, Sudershan Tandon, Manoj Vats, Vijay Thakur, Vikas Madan and Poonam Awasthi were sentenced to 5 years imprisonment with a fine.

Retired IAS official Gopal Dixit and Narender Dheer, 90, have been sentenced to two years' imprisonment with fine, the statement said.

The case pertains to irregularities and criminal conspiracy in the revival of the defunct society from the office of Registrar of Cooperative Societies by using false and fabricated documents.

The investigation revealed that the convicts, including public servants and private individuals, entered into a criminal conspiracy to fraudulently revive the society on the basis of forged documents and obtained allotment of land from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) through deceitful means.

After the land was allotted, the proposed flats were sold off to new members or agents at exorbitant rates. The conspirators allegedly created fake membership lists, impacting thousands of prospective homebuyers.

After the investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet in the case on February 13, 2008. After the trial, the Special Court convicted 13 accused and sentenced them to imprisonment on Friday.

The CBI filed multiple FIRs against alleged conspirators ' developers, officials, and builders ' for charges including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and corruption under IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

With over 135 fake societies uncovered, the scam left many without homes and facing persistent financial liabilities, such as mounting EMIs.

In one of the cases, the CBI managed to secure one year's imprisonment for the then Registrar of Cooperative Societies Narayan Diwakar. The then Assistant Registrar Yogi Raj, Dealing Assistant Niranjan Singh and other staff in the registrar's office were also sentenced to imprisonment.

/IANS