NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday extended the interim bail of former Union Minister Sukh Ram, who was sentenced to three years imprisonment in a 1993 telecom scam, till August 7.
A Bench comprising Justice P Sathasivam and Justice J Chalameshwar also gave similar relief to former bureaucrat Runu Ghosh and Hyderabad-based businessman P Rama Rao, who are convicted in the case.
The CBI has not yet filed its reply in the case and on being asked by the Bench, Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha said that he was unaware whether the agency would file an appeal in the case. Tankha said that he would come back to the court after taking instructions from the higher-ups of the agency.Eighty-four-year-old Sukh Ram was granted interim bail by the apex court after he surrendered before the trial court to serve his three-year sentence.
Ghosh and Rao also surrendered to serve their respective two and three-year jail terms. The Delhi High Court, on December 21 last year, upheld the trial court’s 2002 verdict holding Sukh Ram, Ghosh and Rao guilty of being part of a criminal conspiracy to defraud the state exchequer by awarding a telecom equipment contract to the Hyderabad-based Advanced Radio Masts, which had supplied inferior quality equipment at exorbitant rates.
The Bench posted the appeals filed by the trio challenging their conviction to August 7.