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| India-Pakistan |
| Former Indian Federal minister Sukhram gets 3 years jail |
| 2009-02-25 |
| Former Union Communications Minister Sukh Ram was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in a 13-year-old disproportionate assets case by a New Delhi court on Wednesday. A fine of Rs 2 lakh was also imposed on him under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Ordering forfeiture of Rs 4.25 crore accumulated illegally by the 83-year-old Congress leader during his stint as a Cabinet minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government, Additional Sessions Judge V K Maheshwari observed, "Political corruption is the worst form because its consequences are far-reaching. When our leaders, who are the role models of society and whose actions should be above board, are themselves corrupt, how can we expect honesty and virtue from public at large?" "If the public servants are corrupt, the whole structure of society would get upset and the policies of the government, howsoever beneficial it may be, would be adversely affected," the judge noted. Dismissing Sukh Ram's request to sentence him to a one-month jail term already undergone by him during the investigation, the judge referred to a Supreme Court verdict and said ‘soft sentencing’ was gross injustice where many innocents turned out to be potential victims. Soon after the judgment, however, Sukh Ram was released on bail after the court suspended his sentence for 60 days, enabling him to file an appeal in the Delhi High Court against the order. Terming the verdict ‘biased’, the former minister said, "The judges in the special courts, designated for cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, are generally in a hurry to reach the High Court. I think I became a victim of this rush." "I brought in a revolution in the telecom industry during my tenure. I fulfilled the dreams of late Rajiv Gandhi, and the country cannot forget my contribution," he said while coming out of the courtroom. Asked if he would contest the elections, he said he was still a ‘member of the Congress party’. "The party might not give me a ticket to contest now that I have been convicted. Given a chance, however, I will contest the elections," he added. Sukh Ram had already been sentenced to a three-year jail term by a Delhi court in an equipment supply case to Hyderabad-based Advance Radio Masts (ARM) in 2002 and his appeal against the said order has been pending at the Delhi High Court. In another case, the leader faces charges of illegal gratification while granting a contract for supply of cables to a firm despite specific ministry recommendations against it. "I had never seen so much of cash at one go," recalls former CBI director Joginder Singh during whose tenure the investigating agency had searched the house of former Union Minister Sukh Ram. "I had returned from the Supreme Court and it was raining heavily when my officers told me that the cash recovered was 50 lakh, which kept on mounting every 10 minutes," the 69-year-old Singh said while recalling that this was his first major case after heading the CBI in 1996. Singh said he vividly remembered the moment when he sprang out of the chair when one of his officers called him and informed him that the cash recovery had touched Rs 1 crore. |
| Posted by:john frum |