1996 telecom scam: Sukhram surrenders, sent to 3-year judicial custody

Former Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram, convicted in a 1993 telecom graft case, surrendered in a Delhi Court on Saturday . [caption id=“attachment_175077” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Sukhram arrived at the court premises in an ambulance barely hours after the court issued an order that if he fails to surrender today, a non-bailable arrest warrant will be issued against him. PTI”]  [/caption] The 84-year old, who was in a coma and came to the  court in a hosital, has been sent to judicial custody to serve his three-year sentence period in the 1996 telecom equipment purchase scam. Earlier in the day, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Sanjeev Jain said: “He can’t go beyond (Delhi) high court’s order as the court had asked him to surrender before the trial court.” The Supreme Court had asked the former Union minister to surrender before a trial court on or before January 5.  Sukhram’s counsel,Anil Nag,  citing medical problem of his client, told the court that he will appear in the court Saturday by ambulance. “He is in a state of drowsiness as has undergone medical treatment,” his counsel said. Nag told the court that Sukh Ram was not in coma but in a state of drowsiness and the advocate who appeared for him yesterday had gone “over the board” while stating so. Sukh Ram’s counsel told the judge that the veteran politician will anyhow come to the court and surrender even if he has to come in an ambulance. “I submit that he will surrender and we will bring him in an ambulance as soon as possible,” he had said, adding that issuance of NBW against his client will adversely affect his Special Leave Petition (SLP) pending in the Supreme Court. Earlier on December 21 last year, the high court had upheld the lower court’s 2002 judgement holding Sukh Ram, former bureaucrat Runu Ghosh and Hyderabad-based businessman P Rama Rao guilty of being part of a criminal conspiracy to defraud the state exchequer by awarding a Telecom equipment supply contract to Hyderabad’s Advanced Radio Masts (ARM) which had supplied inferior goods at a higher rate to the DoT. Sukh Ram, Telecom minister between January 18, 1993 and May 16, 1996, in the Narasimha Rao government, had conspired with Ghosh and Rama Rao and approved the ARM Ltd’s bid despite its rates being higher than other bidders. Subsequent to the registration of various cases, the CBI, in 1996, had allegedly seized Rs 3.6 crore cash, concealed in bags and suitcases, from Sukh Ram’s residence in New Delhi. Runu Ghosh and Rama Rao had surrendered before the trial court on January 5 and were sent to jail to serve their sentence of two and three years respectively. Sukh Ram was sentenced to three years of imprisonment by the trial court. Besides the jail term, the convicts were also asked to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh each.