Tehelka expose: Delhi HC stays Jaya Jaitly’s 4-year jail term in corruption case

The Delhi High Court on Thursday stayed an order passed earlier in the day by the trial court sentencing former Samta Party leader Jaya Jaitly to four years imprisonment in connection with a corruption case.

A Delhi court has awarded former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly and two others four years jail term in a 20-year-old corruption case, arising out a sting operation by Tehelka news portal.

However, hours later, the Delhi High Court suspended the sentence while admitting an appeal filed by Jaitly, saving her from going to prison. Justice Suresh Kumar Kait sought a response from the CBI on her appeal.

The sting, 'Operation Westend', was aired by Tehelka in January 2001 in which the accused purportedly accepted bribe from reporters of the portal, who posed as representatives of a fictitious company, for supply orders for handheld thermal imagers from the army.

The meetings took place in 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 an approver, were a party to the criminal conspiracy, the court held.

All the three accused - Jaitly, Pacherwal and Murgai - were convicted of the offence of conspiracy (Section 120-B IPC) read with Section 9 (Taking gratification, for the exercise of personal influence with public servant) of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

The court held that “from the evidence lead by the prosecution it is proved beyond doubt that in the meeting in the hotel room on December 25, 2000, Surekha and Murgai assured their assistance to Samuel in procuring letter of evaluation for the product of his company from the Ministry of Defence and also to arrange a meeting between him and accused Jaya Jaitly who would provide political cover to them 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 accused Jaitly in this regard, the order said.