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These 13 persons were found guilty of passing on important military and other state secrets to foreign agents.
Special Judge R K Gauba also fined M/s S L Maneklal Industries Limited Rs 1,00,000 [approximately US $2,040] for the offence under the Official Secrets Act.
On Tuesday, the court had convicted the firm, its managing director Maneklal, P Gopalan, T N Kher, S L Chandana, Swami Nath Ram, K K Malhotra, S Sankaran, Jagdish Chander Arora, V K Palaniswamy, Amrik Lal, J M Tiwari, Kishan Chand Sharma and H N Chaturvedi under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and various provisions of the OSA.
Rejecting their plea for leniency, the court said, "The case against Maneklal deserves distinct treatment. He is the person who mobilised the resources of the regional office of the company for the nefarious activities with the sole object of winning favours from his regional collaborators. He is the one who cajoled and inspired accused Coomar Narain [who died during trial] to set up the network."
Stating that Maneklal was the one who worked as a channel between Narain and their foreign manipulators, the judge said, "In my view only the maximum punishment provided in law for him shall meet the ends of justice. I thus award RI for 14 years to him for the offence punishable under section 120-B IPC read with the first part of section 3(1) of OSA."
The court said the period of judicial custody undergone by Maneklal would be deducted from the sentence.
To the accused who were government servants when the spy racket was busted, the court awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment for offences punishable under section 120-B of the IPC and other provisions of the OSA.
The court said all substantive sentences would run concurrently and the convicts would be entitled to set off the period of detention already undergone in the case against their sentences.
Gopalan, Kher, Chandana, Malhotra and Ram were in the prime minister's office, Sankaran was working in the President's secretariat, and Palaniswamy was working in the surface transport ministry at the time of commission of the offence.
Tiwari and Chaturvedi were employed with the commerce ministry. Sharma, who earlier worked with the commerce ministry, was on deputation with the World Bank when the spy racket was busted.
The main accused Coomar Narain was regional manager of M/s SLM Maneklal Industries Limited at 16 Hailey Road in New Delhi.
Following Narain's arrest, the police seized about 100 sensitive classified documents from the accused.
Awarding the sentence, the judge said "the need of the hour, particularly in cases of this nature, is to be ruthless in the matter of sentence".
"The delay in conclusion of trial is for reasons in which the convicts will have to share the blame," he said. "No circumstance deserves to be taken as mitigating in such matters where the supreme national interests have been compromised. I thus reject the plea for leniency."
PTI
EARLIER REPORT: Court convicts 13 in Coomar Narain spy case
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