HC upholds conviction of ex-minister Sukh Ram
22 Dec 2011
The Delhi High Court yesterday confirmed a three-year jail sentence passed on Sukh Ram, a Congress party member and telecommunications minister under the prime ministership of PV Narasimha Rao, in relation to a 1996 telecom scam.
A bench comprising justices S Ravindra Bhat and G P Mittal also upheld the conviction of Runu Ghosh, former deputy director-general in the department of telecommunications (DoT), and P Rama Rao, managing director of private company Advanced Radio Masts (ARM).
Bhat and Rao have been sentenced to two years each. The court ordered all three to surrender forthwith before the trial court to serve their sentences.
"The order on sentence impugned in all these appeals are affirmed and left undisturbed. The appellants shall surrender and serve their sentences; they shall appear before the trial court for this purpose on January 5, 2012," the bench ruled.
The high court exonerated Sukh Ram of at least one charge – it said his conviction on a charge of criminal conspiracy regarding awarding the equipment-supply contract to ARM was ''not justified.''
But it upheld the conviction of Ghosh and Rao on the charge of criminal conspiracy.
