A Delhi court Friday began the trial against former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley and two others in a graft case for a purported defence deal.
The case stems out of a sting operation, ‘Operation Westend’ aired by news portal Tehelka.com in January 2001.
The CBI has alleged that the accused Jaya Jaitley, her former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (retired) S.P. Murgai accepted illegal gratification from Mathew Samuel, a representative of company Westend International. The illegal gratification was accepted for obtaining supply orders for hand held thermal imagers from the army.
The CBI filed the charge sheet against Jaitley and two others in 2006.
The court March 5 this year had framed charges against Jaitley, Pacherwal and Murgai for corruption in the purported purchase of hand-held thermal imagers.
Testifying as a prosecution witness in the case, Retired Director, Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), S.K. Dasgupta told Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Kanwaljeet Arora that the Government of India through DOPT had constituted a Commission in March, 2001 for probing into and inquiring about ‘Operation Westend’ prepared by Tehelka.com.
Gupta said that as a designated officer of DOPT, he has given tapes and other documents lying with the commission to the CBI.
Meanwhile, Jaya Jaitley has moved an application to travel abroad. The court has asked the CBI to file a reply on it and listed the matter for hearing May 1.
