Out of 'coma' Sukh Ram sent to jail in ambulance

A Delhi court on Saturday sent former Union minister Sukh Ram to jail in an ambulance to serve his three-year sentence

Sukh Ram, who was convicted in a 1993 telecom scam, had been warned by Special CBI Judge Sanjiv Jain to surrender, failing which a non-bailable warrant would have been issued against him.

n a U-turn, the 86-year-old's counsel Anil Nag told the court that the former minister was not in a state of coma and would surrendering before the court on Saturday.

Nag told the court that Sukh Ram was not in coma but in a state of drowsiness and the advocate who appeared for him on Friday had gone "over the board" while stating so.

"I submit that he will surrender and we will bring him in an ambulance as soon as possible," he said, adding that issuance of NBW against his client will adversely affect his Special Leave Petition (SLP) pending in the Supreme Court.

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While brushing aside Sukh Ram's plea that he may be taken into judicial custody in the hospital itself, the judge, instructed the court staff to inform the concerned authorities to make adequate arrangements in case Sukh Ram comes to surrender in an ambulance and unable to move on his own.

Sukh Ram was directed by the Supreme Court to surrender before the trial court on January 5 but he avoided the same citing medical reasons.

The former minister's counsel had submitted that Sukh Ram was hospitalised after undergoing computerised tomography (CT) angiography.

Sukh Ram's counsel, however, had on Friday told the court that "he has gone into coma, he cannot move from hospital".

Earlier on December 21 last year, the high court had upheld the lower court's 2002 judgement holding Sukh Ram, former bureaucrat Runu Ghosh and Hyderabad-based businessman P Rama Rao guilty of being part of a criminal conspiracy to defraud the state exchequer by awarding a Telecom equipment supply contract to Hyderabad's Advanced Radio Masts (ARM) which had supplied inferior goods at a higher rate to the DoT.

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Runu Ghosh and Rama Rao had surrendered before the trial court on January 5 and were sent to jail to serve their sentence of two and three years respectively.

Sukh Ram was sentenced to three years of imprisonment by the trial court. Besides the jail term, the convicts were also asked to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh each.

The three convicts had approached the apex court to grant them relief so that they would not have to surrender. The apex court, however, refused to entertain their plea, saying that their appeal against the Delhi High Court would be listed for hearing only after they surrender before the trial court.

Sukh Ram, Telecom minister between January 18, 1993 and May 16, 1996, in the Narasimha Rao government, had conspired with Ghosh and Rama Rao and approved the ARM Ltd's bid despite its rates being higher than other bidders.

Subsequent to the registration of various cases, the CBI, in 1996, had allegedly seized Rs 3.6 crore cash, concealed in bags and suitcases, from Sukh Ram's residence in New Delhi.

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