Supreme Court extends ex-minister Sukhram's bail till August 7

New Delhi, Jan 16 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday extended the interim bail granted to former Telecom Minister Sukhram, who was convicted in connection with the 1996 telecom equipment purchase scam, till August 7.

The court also extended the bail of two of the co-accused, former bureaucrat Runu Ghosh and Hyderabad-based businessman P Rama Rao.he apex court had on January 9 granted interim bail till today to the former minister, who had surrendered before a trial court to serve his three-year sentence in the scam case.

The bench had, on January 5, refused to entertain their appeal against the Delhi High Court"s order convicting them in the scam and awarded a jail term of three years for Sukhram and Rao and two years of imprisonment for Ghosh.

The 1996 telecom scam involved award of a contract to a Hyderabad firm for supplying telecom equipment to government at exorbitant rates.

Sukhram, a cabinet Minister in the Government headed by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, was held guilty under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The CBI, in its charge sheet filed in 1998, had accused Sukhram of showing undue favour in awarding the cable supply contract to HTL. Sukhram had been put on trial along with HTL chairman Devinder Singh Choudhary who died during the trial.

In 2009, Sukhram had been held guilty of possessing disproportionate assets worth Rs. 4.25 crore.

In 2002, he was awarded a three-year jail term under the Prevention of Corruption Act in a separate case relating to equipment supply for causing a loss of Rs. 1.66 crore to the state exchequer. (ANI)