According to the latest India News, the Supreme Court has extended the interim bail of former Union telecom Minister SukhRam in a 1993 telecom case.
Meanwhile, a bench led by Justice P Sathasivam extended the bail of two other co-accused, former bureaucrat Runu Ghosh and Hyderabad-based entrepreneur P Rama Rao.
In a statement issued by the SC, it said that the court would assume the appeals registered by all 3 challenging their conviction and sentence on August 7.
Earlier on January 9th, the Supreme Court had issued interim bail till today to the former telecom minister, who had surrendered before a trial court to serve his three-year sentence in the scam case.
On 21st December 2011, the Delhi High Court had upheld the lower court’s 2002 decisions of holding former telecom minister and two others, who found guilty of a criminal scheme to defraud the state exchequer by pending a telecom tools supply deal to Hyderabad-based Advanced Radio Masts (ARM)
The company led by P Rama Rao and he is charged with the allotment of inferior goods at a higher rate to the Department of Telecom (DoT), where Ms Ghosh was posted as the Deputy Director-General.
Granting interim bail, the Supreme Court had released a statement to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the intelligence agency looking after the telecom scam.
However, CBI has not submitted its reply in the court yet. On a question from the bench, Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha said, “SukhRam was unaware whether the agency would file an appeal in the case or not.”
He further said that he would take instructions from the agency.
After registering the case in the court in 1996, the CBI has also recovered the Rs. 3.6 crore in cash which was concealed in bags as well as suitcases from Sukh Ram’s residence.
In the meantime, Mr. Sukh Ram was Telecom Minister between January 18, 1993 and May 16, 1996, in the then Narasimha Rao government.
