The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the registry to file all records and evidences against former telecom minister Sukhram, who was convicted by a lower court and sentenced to three years in jail in a corruption case.
A division bench comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Suresh Kait asked the registry to furnish all the records and file these by Oct 26, the next date of hearing.
The court was hearing Sukhram’s appeal against the three-year jail term handed down to him by a lower court.
The single-judge bench had last month referred the matter to a larger bench citing several legal issues involved in it.
“There are certain legal issues which I have framed in this case and it should be decided by a division bench,” Justice S. Muralidhar had said.
Sukhram was convicted for his role in a telecom scam and sentenced for irregularities causing a loss of Rs.1.68 crore to the public exchequer when the late P.V. Narasimha Rao was the prime minister.
He was convicted in July 2002 together with Runu Ghosh, former Department of Telecom (DoT) deputy director general, and P. Ramarao, managing director of the private firm Advanced Radio Ltd.
Sukhram was convicted under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act for defrauding the exchequer by awarding the contract to the Bangalore-based firm that had supplied inferior quality equipment at a higher rate.
The trial court, which had said that sentences would run concurrently, had granted bail to Sukhram. He challenged his conviction in the high court.
Ghosh was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with a fine of Rs.50,000 for her role in the criminal conspiracy while Ramarao was sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs.200,000.
IANS
