New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today directed former Telecom Minister Sukh Ram, his former aide Runu Ghosh and Hyderabad-based businessman P Rama Rao, convicted in a 1996 telecom equipment purchase scam, to surrender by the end of the day.
The three had moved the apex court challenging the Delhi High Court's December 21 order upholding their convictions in the case. The High Court had asked them to surrender before the trial court today to serve their respective sentences.
While the 86-year-old Sukh Ram and Mr Rao were awarded a three-year jail term each, former Deputy Director General of the Department of Telecom (DoT) Runu Ghosh was sentenced to two years in jail.
The scam related to a deal between the Hyderabad-based Avanced Radio Masts (ARM) of which Mr Rao is the Managing Director and the DoT.
The former minister and others were held guilty of being part of a criminal conspiracy to defraud the state exchequer of Rs. 1.98 crore by awarding the contract to ARM which had supplied inferior equipment at a higher rate to the DoT.
In November last year, Mr Sukh Ram was convicted in another case of corruption for accepting a bribe of Rs. three lakh and showing undue favour to a private firm in during his tenure as the Telecom Minister.