New Delhi: Former Telecom Minister Sukh Ram
on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction
and sentencing by a trial court for taking Rs 3 lakh as bribe
to award a lucrative contract to a telecom firm in 1996.
86-year-old Sukh Ram, who had held the Telecom portfolio
in PV Narasimha Rao's cabinet, was convicted last Thursday
in a cable contract case. He was handed out five years jail
term by Special CBI judge RP Pandey on Saturday and sent to
jail.
A petition on behalf of Sukh Ram against his conviction
and sentencing was filed in the high court's registry, said
registry sources.
Sukh Ram had earlier also been convicted in two separate
corruption cases in 2002 and 2009 but remained out of jail.
Minutes after he was taken in custody on court's order
last Saturday, the veteran politician from Himachal Pradesh
was attacked by a Sikh youth outside the courtroom.
The court had sentenced Sukh Ram to five year in jail and
ordered his arrest, dismissing his plea for leniency on the
ground of his age old.
"The octogenarian convict has already reaped the dividend
of a long-drawn process of law and as despite having been
convicted in two other corruption cases, he is enjoying
freedom, which is passing a wrong message to the public at
large and strengthen the popular belief that one can earn
money by corrupt means and enjoy its fruits by spending some
portion of it," the court had said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, November 23, 2011, 16:21