Sukh Ram sinks into coma, cannot be jailed yet

It seems possible that former union telecom minister Sukh Ram of the Congress, who later allied with the BJP as a cabinet minister in Himachal Pradesh  after being expelled by his party, may yet cheat the jailer by dying before serving his sentence in a 1993 telecom scam.

Sukh Ram (86) was ordered by the Supreme Court to surrender and serve out his three-year sentence, but his counsel today told a special CBI court in Delhi that the former minister had gone into a coma and could not be moved from hospital.

Judge Dharmesh Sharma deferred the matter till Saturday, as special judge Sanjiv Jain who is looking into the case is on leave today.

''As the applicant/convict has gone into coma and judge in charge is on leave and is joining his duty tomorrow let the matter be put up for consideration before him tomorrow at 10 am,'' Sharma said.

The two others convicted in the case -  former deputy director general in the department of communications (DoT) Runu Ghosh and Hyderabad-based businessman P Rama Rao - had surrendered before the trial court on Thursday and were sent to jail to serve their sentence of two and three years respectively.

While upholding their convictions, the Delhi high court had directed all the three convicts to surrender before the trial court on 5 January to undergo their jail terms.