NEW DELHI: Sporting a black safari suit and a beard of two days, Sukh Ram, who arrived in a wheel chair at the private ward building of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sept. 16th, looked pale and shaky, “I am innocent,” he mumbled, even before the first question could be put to him. Seconds before, a white Ambassador car carrying Sukh Ram and CBI Superintendent H.S. Sandhu, had screeched to a halt outside the building. Two incongruities were evident, the prime accused in the telecom scam did not come in an ambulance (though the vehicles carrying the AIMS insignia was followed by the Ambassador) and all of the 200 odd journalists and photographers who had swarmed the entrance of the Indira Gandhi International Airport were conspicuous by their absence.
Once out of the car, Sukh Ram was pushed straight inside the building on a wheel chair and then to room No, 7 on the ground floor. He would frequently put his hand on his chest. “I am not feeling well, I am having pain in the heart,” he said, desperately groping for words. Sukh Ram claimed that he wanted to be taken to the Escorts Heart Institute “my doctors in Lon don, have advised me to continue the treatment there but the CBI would have none of it. “T have had a long argument with the CBI officials at the IGI Airport. I told them it is crucial for me that I be shifted to the Escorts, where I am sure of getting the kind of treatment my doctor’s want. But the CBI turned down all my pleas. I don’t know why they have done this.”
Sukh Ram reiterated that the money seized from his New Delhi residence was not his. “It was the (Congress) party’s fund money, to be used for the fourth coming Uttar Pradesh election.” Despite repeated efforts, he declined to elaborate on this point. Sukh Ram, however, insisted that a press statement was being prepared on his behalf and it would be circulated to the media within a day or two. I will soon make my stand clear.”
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1996
