Aizawl, Nov 9 (IANS): A special court has acquitted Mizoram Chief Minister and Mizo National Front (MNF) chief Zoramthanga in two cases relating to misuse of power and possession of disproportionate assets, officials said on Tuesday.

An official of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said that Special Court Judge Vanlalenmawia, in his order on Monday, said that the court did not find enough evidence to prove that Zoramthanga had assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, hence, he is not liable to be convicted under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The state ACB had earlier filed a charge sheet against Zoramthanga accusing him of accumulation of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The ACB charge sheet had claimed that in 2003, Zoramthanga, through an affidavit, had declared that he owned assets worth Rs 54.18 lakh and these increased to over Rs 1.38 crore before 2008 elections, without having any known source of income.

In 2009, two local organisations, including the People Right to Information and Development Implementing Society of Mizoram (PRISM), the previous anti-corruption watchdog, had filed a case against Zoramthanga for misuse of power as a public servant to procure angle iron posts and goat-proof wire mesh worth around Rs 37 lakh from the Agriculture Department for erection of fencing of his farm at Aii puk area in Sihphir in 2007.

The court, however, said that the materials under the Assistance to Small and Marginal Farmers scheme of the Agriculture Department were lawfully supplied for the benefit of needy farmers.

The MNF chief became Chief Minister for the first time in 1998 and remained in the post till 2008 when his party lost to Congress. Zoramtanga became Chief Minister for the third time in 2018, when the MNF defeated the Congress.