The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sukh Ram moves court over delay in trial

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sukh Ram moves court over delay in trial

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Former Union Communications Minister Sukh Ram has moved the Delhi High Court seeking transfer of his disproportionate assets case, submitting that the matter had been lingering on in a trial court here for long without any signs of it being decided in the near future.

A Special Court for CBI cases here had framed the charges against him under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act way back in 2001, and the trial has been going on since.

The CBI had alleged that Sukh Ram had amassed disproportionate assets valued at more than Rs.5 crore between 1991-96.

Taking his petition on record, Justice B.N. Chaturvedi of the High Court said he would take it up for hearing on May 9.

The disproportionate assets case is an offshoot of the telecom equipment supply case of 1996, involving Sukh Ram; then Deputy Director-General (Lease-Financing) of the Department of Telecom (DoT) Runu Ghosh; and Hyderabad-based businessman Pataru Rama Rao.

A court here had in 2002 sentenced Sukh Ram to three years' rigorous imprisonment for making Rama Rao, Managing Director of Advance Radio Masts (ARM) Pvt. Ltd. of Hyderabad, richer by Rs. 1.66 crore at the expense of the taxpayer's money.

Ghosh and Pataru Rama Rao were sentenced to two years and three years imprisonment each respectively for causing a financial gain of Rs. 1.66 crore to ARM Ltd.

The High Court has been hearing appeals against the trial court judgment in this case.

The case dates back to 1991 when the DoT had floated a tender to buy 3,000 MARR Shared Radio Systems. Of all the 35 companies which had vied for supply of the systems, ARM Pvt. Ltd. had quoted a higher price than the one quoted by Indo-Tronix Computers Pvt. Ltd. which had offered the equipment at the rate of Rs. 354,500 per system.

However, ARM Pvt. Limited had the benefit of having an approval from the Telecom Engineering Centre for manufacturing the equipment

Since the instrument was to have been purchased only from those manufacturers which had the approval, the Tender Evaluation Committee recommended that a counter offer should be given to ARM Pvt. Ltd. to supply 500 systems at the rate of Rs. 3,54,000 per piece.

Sukh Ram and Ghosh favoured ARM Pvt. Ltd. by ensuring the purchase of two types of equipment at the same rate, while they were available at different rates at that time.

The Rs.1.66 crore which the ARM Pvt. Limited gained in conspiracy with the Minister and the official was the differential price between the two equipments.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi