20 yrs on, Jaitly convicted of graft

New Delhi, July 25

Samata Party’s ex-president Jaya Jaitly and two others have been convicted by a court here in a nearly 20-year-old graft case related to a purported defence deal that stemmed from a sensational sting operation by Tehelka news portal.

Maj Gen (R) guilty too

• A sting operation nearly 20 years ago showed Samata Party’s former president taking bribe from a fictitious firm
• Her ex-party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Maj Gen SP Murgai (retd) too have been convicted

Special CBI judge Virender Bhat held Jaitly, her former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General SP Murgai (retd) guilty of corruption and criminal conspiracy.

‘Operation Westend’ was aired by news portal Tehelka in January 2001 in which the accused purportedly accepted bribe from a fictitious company for supply orders for handheld thermal imagers from the Army.

She did it with the “motive to exercise influence upon public servants in the matter to get supply orders from the Ministry of Defence for equipment for the firm”.

The meetings took place at the official residence of the then Defence Minister George Fernandes.

In its July 21 order, the court observed that while Jaitly accepted illegal gratification of Rs 2 lakh from Mathew Samuel, a representative of the fictitious company (Westend International), Murgai received Rs 20,000.

The three accused, along with Surender Kumar Surekha, who later turned approver, were a party to the criminal conspiracy, the court held. It is alleged that a sum of Rs 1 lakh was paid to Surekha for his assistance in the matter.

The CBI filed the charge- sheet in 2006. The court is scheduled to hear arguments on the quantum of sentence on July 29. — Agencies