NEW DELHI, 6 July — Former Communications Minister Sukh Ram was yesterday sentenced to three years in jail and fined 200,000 rupees in a corruption case.
Special Judge V.K. Jain convicted Sukh Ram of the charge of causing a loss of 16.8 million rupees to the government in awarding a contract for substandard telecom equipment to a Hyderabad-based firm.
Sukh Ram was also sentenced to three years in jail under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). The two sentences will run concurrently.
Jain also convicted Runu Ghosh, former deputy director general in the Department of Telecom and P. Ramarao, managing director of the Hyderabad firm Advanced Radio Ltd., in the same case.
Ghosh was sentenced to two years in jail and fined 50,000 rupees. Ramarao received a three-year jail term and was fined 200,000 rupees. Jain suspended the sentences to enable all three to appeal their convictions. They were granted bail subject to furnishing a bail bond of 100,000 rupees and surety each.
Sukh Ram’s counsel S.S. Gandhi said the appeal would be filed next week after he had studied Jain’s order.
The case related to the award of a contract for MARR shared radio system equipment by the Department of Telecom.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which investigated the case, alleged that Sukh Ram had connived with the others to approve the bid of the Hyderabad firm even though its rates were higher than that of the other bidders.
The equipment supplied by the firm were of poor quality and exorbitantly priced, caused a loss of 16.8 million rupees to the government. The CBI had filed charges against Sukh Ram, Ghosh and Ramarao in March 1997. Sukh Ram had hit the headlines in 1996 when the CBI recovered currency worth close to 40 million rupees from the bungalow that had been allotted to him as communications minister.
Sukh Ram is the president of the Himachal Vikas Congress, which is a junior partner in the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. The state Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said it was for the ruling central coalition to decide on continuing its alliance with Sukh Ram’s party after his conviction for corruption.
Sukh Ram had played the role of king maker at the time when he helped the BJP come to power despite the Congress party emerging as the single largest party after elections to the 68-member state assembly.
Asked about the fallout of the conviction, Dhumal said: "Since Sukh Ram is also a member of the NDA (the ruling National Democratic Alliance) at the center, it is now for the NDA to decide his future vis-a-vis his alliance with the BJP". HVC, which has one member in the Lok Sabha, is part of the NDA.
Sukh Ram had become the deputy chief minister when the BJP-HVC government assumed office in Himachal Pradesh in 1998. Shortly afterward, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had asked him to step down when the CBI filed charges against him in the telecom scam.
Sukh Ram was later appointed chairman of the state’s Employment Committee, a position that gave him the trappings of a Cabinet minister. He continues to hold the post. Asked whether Sukh Ram would be asked to step down from this position, Dhumal said there was no need for him to do so "at the moment".
Somewhat sarcastically, Dhumal said that the BJP had never sought the support of the HVC and that it had been the other way round.
