Former Union Communications minister Sukhram was on Friday convicted by a Delhi Court for amassing Rs 4.25 crore of disproportionate assets.
Former Union minister of state for communications Sukh Ram was finally convicted in a disproportionate assets case after 13 long years.
Fast-track judge VK Maheshwari held the 82-year-old politician guilty under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act during his tenure from June 20, 1991, to August 16, 1996.
It was alleged that Sukh Ram had amassed over Rs 4.25 crore. The court has scheduled February 24 for announcement of quantum of punishment.
Soon after the case came to light, the CBI registered a case in August 1996 and raided Sukh Ram’s houses in Delhi and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.
The agency unearthed Rs2.45 crore hidden in his toilet tank, bedroom mattress, inside his pillow and in the walls of his palatial house. Investigators spent several days recovering the full amount hidden in his house.
The money apart, the CBI found a palatial house the minister had acquired in Ghaziabad, a farmhouse in Himachal Pradesh and details of several bank lockers and bank accounts.
Even as the court was giving a judgment against him, the politician was busy appearing in the Rohini district court where a criminal case is pending against him. His counsel had asked the court to exempt him from personal appearance for the day.
During the arguments in court, Sukh Ram’s counsel KTS Tulsi said the former minister had been victimised because of political rivalry between former prime ministers Narsimha Rao and HD Deve Gowda.
The CBI had also questioned former prime minister Narsimha Rao and senior Congress leader Sita Ram Keshari in the case.
Both had denied that the money found from Sukh Ram’s house was part of the party fund. The agency had questioned 64 people and produced 16 people as key witnesses in the case.
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