NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday put on hold the four-year jail term given to
former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly in a corruption case related to a purported defence deal. The high court has sought CBI’s response on Jaya Jaitly’s appeal challenging her conviction and sentence in the case.
Earlier in the day, a Delhi court had sentenced Jaitly and two others to four years in prison for corruption in the 2000-01 case. Special CBI judge Virender Bhat also awarded jail terms to Jaitly’s former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (Retd) SP Murgai. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each and had directed them to surrender by 5 pm on Thursday.
The three were held guilty of corruption and criminal conspiracy in the purported purchase of hand-held thermal imagers. The case stemmed from ‘Operation Westend’ sting aired by news portal Tehelka in January 2001.
The court had held that they, along with Surender Kumar Surekha (who later turned approver), were party to a criminal conspiracy. The court observed that while Jaitly accepted Rs 2 lakh from Mathew Samuel — a representative of fictional company Westend International, Major General Murgai received Rs 20,000. The money was accepted for obtaining supply orders for handheld thermal imagers from the Indian army.
The court held it is “proved beyond doubt that in a meeting at a hotel on December 25, 2000, Surekha and Murgai assured their assistance to Samuel in procuring letter of evaluation for the product of his company from the Ministry of Defence and also to arrange a meeting between him and accused Jaya Jaitley who would provide political cover to them in this regard.”
Pacherwal arranged the said meeting with Jaitly three days later. He too was present in the said meeting along with Surekha, Samuel and Murgai.The court further said, “In that meeting, which took place at the official residence of then Union Minister for Defence George Fernandes, Samuel was introduced to Jaitly as a businessman whose company intended to enter the defence procurement market.”
Jaitly accepted Rs 2 lakh, rules city court
A Delhi court had held that Jaya Jaitly, Gopal Pacherwal and Maj Gen (Retd) SP Murgai were party to a criminal conspiracy. It observed that while Jaitly accepted Rs 2 lakh from Mathew Samuel— a representative of fictional company Westend International, Maj Gen Murgai received Rs 20,000.