NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Sept. 17 remanded the former Telecommunication Minister Sukh Ram, the main accused in the Rs 1.68 crore telecom scam, to the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) till September 23. It also directed the investigating agency to provide “adequate medical facilities” to the accused. In his three page order, Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke observed that “this is a case of great magnitude and prima-facie involvement of accused Sukh Ram in the conspiracy cannot be ruled out.” The hour long arguments before Bharihoke revolved around the ARM case, in which Sukh Ram is the main accused. The CBI was reminded by the judge that investigating agency had arrested Sukh Ram in the ARM case, and not in the case involving recovery of Rs 3.71 crore from his residence. At the outset, the defense counsel, Dinesh Mathur, challenged the CBI’s plea seeking remand of his client. “My client has returned on his own. The CBl has already made all the recoveries from him and we assure this court that he will not tamper with the investigations. As such, he is entitled to be released on bail.”
The arguments were opposed by the CBI counsel, Baljit Singh. During his lengthy submissions, Singh did not rule out “more recoveries” from the accused. “Sukh Ram is the hero of the entire drama. We still have to cover many angles. Our case is that Sukh Ram wanted to grab the entire Department of Telecommunications (DoT).” Arguing on the ARM deal, Dinesh Mathur contended that his client had acted bonafide while placing orders in respect of crystal based system on M/s Advanced Radio Masts Limited, a Hyderabad based company in 1993. “Sukh Ram had actually only followed the decision taken by the previous minister Rajesh Pilot,” the Mathur said. He also urged to the court to examine all documents and materials relating to this case on record to justify involvement of his client in the case.
But judge Bhariboke observed in his order: “The accused Sukh Ram placed order for supply of 450 system of crystal version upon M/s ARM Limited ignoring the price difference of Rs 37,170 and caused wrongful loss of Rs 1.68 crore to the government and corresponding wrongful gain to M/s ARM Limited. “From the record it appears that the price negotiation committee on June 18, 1993 had pointed out that synthesized version of communication system was superior to the crystal version and the price of crystal version should have been less than the price of synthesized version.
Sukh Ram, who was arrested by the CBI soon after his arrival from London in pursuant to NBW issued against him by the court, was produced before the court under tight security. Mathur submitted that Sukh Ram got berths in the Union Minister in January 1993, while a notice for inviting tender (NIT) was issued by the DoT on December 27, 1991. A tender enquiry committee (TEC) comprising five members was constituted on January 6, 1992, he further submitted. Maintaining that his client was innocent, Mathur alleged that “the entire case was being pursued by the investigating agency to score political vendetta. At that time when the entire process was done, my client was not in ministerial power.”
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1996
