Sukhram checks into Tihar

In a season of low tolerance for politicians involved in corruption, 86-year old ex-telecom minister Sukhram was handed a five-year sentence for accepting a Rs 3-lakh bribe in 1996 with the trial court rejecting advanced age as grounds for a lenient view. By Saturday evening, Sukhram was in Tihar in the company of A Raja, another extelecom minister in jail for alleged complicity in the 2G scam. Sukhram is fighting conviction in another case of massive cash recoveries from his residence when he was minister for which he has received bail. Special CBI judge R P Pandey explained the sentence saying “a corrupt public servant is a menace to society and brings society and his office into disrepute”, and added that courts could not be oblivious of the need to restore public confidence. “The court cannot remain oblivious to the factum of shaken public confidence in the efficacy of law to deal with corruption, particularly when it is the question of tackling the corruption cases involving high-ranking public servants such as ministers...it can’t afford to be excessive lenient with such convicts,” he said. In 1995-96, Sukhram as minister in PV Narasimha Rao govt, took a bribe of Rs 3 lakh for a Rs 30 crore cable contract to Haryana Telecom Ltd CBI registered case in Nov 1996 Co-accused D S Choudhary, chairman HTL, died during trial CBI recovered the bribe Sukhram took during raids at his house in Mandi (HP) in 1996 Rs 11,651,520 stashed in suitcases seized. Rs 3 lakh in Rs 500 notes part of this booty A visiting card of D S Choudhary was found in an envelope