The three defendants were part of the criminal conspiracy, the court concluded. (Representative)
New Delhi:
Former Samata Party Chairman Jaya Jaitly and two others have been sentenced by a New Delhi court in a nearly 20-year-old transplant case linked to an alleged defense deal that stemmed from a needle-stick operation sensational experience of the Tehelka information portal.
CBI Special Judge Virender Bhat has found Jaitly, his former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (retired) SP Murgai guilty of corruption and criminal conspiracy.
The sting, “ Operation Westend, ” was broadcast by Tehelka in January 2001 in which the accused allegedly accepted a bribe from journalists at the portal, posing as representatives of a company fictitious, for orders for Army Portable Thermal Imager supplies.
The meetings took place at the official residence of former Defense Minister George Fernandes.
In its July 21 order, the court observed that if Ms Jaitly accepted an illegal gratuity of Rs 2 lakh from Mathew Samuel, a representative of the shell company Westend International, Mr Murgai had received Rs 20,000.
The three defendants, along with Surender Kumar Surekha, who later became an approver, were parties to the criminal conspiracy, the court found.
The three defendants – Ms. Jaitly, Mr. Pacherwal and Mr. Murgai – were found guilty of the offense of conspiracy (Article 120-B IPC) read with Article 9 (Take satisfaction, for exercising personal influence with a official) of the Corruption Prevention (PC) Act.
The court is due to hear arguments on the quantum of the sentence on July 29.
The court ruled that “from the evidence presented by the prosecution, it is proven beyond any doubt that at the meeting in the hotel room on December 25, 2000, Surekha and Murgai assured Samuel of assistance. to obtain an evaluation letter for his company’s product from the Ministry of Defense and also to arrange a meeting between him and the accused Jaya Jaitly who would provide them with political cover in this regard. “
It was agreed that Samuel would pay a sum of Rs. 1 lakh each to Surekha and Murgai and a sum of Rs 2 lakh to accuse Jaitly in this regard, according to the order.
“Thus, there had been an agreement between them to obtain the letter of evaluation of the product concerned by illegal means, that is to say by resorting to corruption and personal influence on the officials concerned”, the court said.
The court observed that “this type of agreement clearly amounted to a crime of conspiracy”.
Subsequently, Surekha contacted Pacherwal and roped him into the plot, he said. “Accordingly, Pacherwal arranged said meeting for December 28, 2000. He too was present at said meeting in Mrs. Jaitly’s room with Surekha, Samuel and Murgai.
“At this meeting, which took place at the official residence of former Union Defense Minister George Fernandes, Samuel was introduced to Jaitly as a businessman whose company intends to ” enter the defense procurement market.
“Samuel offered the sum of Rs 2 lakh to Jaitly who ordered him to hand over the money to Pacherwal and as a result, the money was received by the accused Pacherwal knowing that it was a pot- de-vin. “
Instead, Jaitly assured Samuel that in the event that her company’s product was not taken into account, she would step in by asking ‘Sahib’ (allegedly Fernandes) to send a note to the officer concerned in this regard, “the judge observed.
Therefore, the accused Pacherwal and Jaitley, having joined the conspiracy at a later time with knowledge of the object and having agreed to perform the task assigned to them for its accomplishment, are also guilty of the offense of conspiracy, the court told me.
It said.
Likewise, Mr. Murgai received a sum of Rs 20,000 from Samuel on January 4, 2000 for his assistance in arranging a meeting with Ms. Jaitly and obtaining a letter from valuation for the company’s product by exercising personal influence over the managers concerned. , noted the court.
“Therefore, both have committed an offense under section 9 of the PC Law,” he said.
Ms Jaitly, who was Fernandes’ close assistant, resigned her post as leader of the Samata party following allegations of corruption.
The charge sheet against the three was filed in 2006 and the charges were laid in 2012.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
