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Jaya Jaitley Corruption Case: Former chairman of Samata Party Jaya Jaitley has been sentenced to four years in a corruption case by a court. Along with him, Gopal Pacherwal and Major General SP Mugai have also been sentenced to jail.

A New Delhi court sentenced former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley to four years in prison for alleged corruption in a nearly 20-year-old defense deal. Apart from this, his former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal, Major General (Retd.) S. P. Murgai has also been sentenced to four years imprisonment. Earlier, the CBI had on Wednesday demanded a maximum sentence of seven years in jail for the convicts, while CBI Special Judge Virendra Bhat reserved his decision till Thursday.

Jaitley, his former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (retired) SP Murgai were convicted of corruption and criminal conspiracy in the purchase of thermal imager. The case came to light in January 2001 from ‘Operation Westend’ broadcast on the news portal Tehelka. It was a sting operation.

Was accused of taking bribe

The trio was alleged to have accepted a bribe by the accused from a journalist who came as a representative of the suspected company to supply thermal imager to the army.

The court said in its judgment that Jaitley had illegally collected Rs. 2 lakh from Matthew Samuel, a representative of the suspect company Westend International, while Murgai received Rs. 20,000. Surendra Kumar Surekha along with the three accused were parties to the criminal conspiracy case, but Surekha later became a government witness.

‘The deal was done in the hotel’

The court convicted the three accused – Jaitley, Pachherwal, and Murgai – under criminal conspiracy (Section-120B of the Indian Penal Code) and Section-9 of the Anti-Corruption Act. The court had said that the evidence provided by the prosecution proves that in a hotel room meeting on 25 December 2000, Surekha and Murgai issued letters to Samuel asking the Ministry of Defense to evaluate the product manufactured by his company. Had given the assurance of.

‘Promise of two lakh rupees to Jaitley’

According to the court, a meeting of Samuel with Jaya Jaitley was arranged so that he could get political protection. The court said that it was agreed that Samuel would give one lakh rupees to Surekha and Murgai, while for this Jaitley would be given two lakh rupees. The court had said, “By using corruption and personal influence on the officials concerned, they have reached an agreement to obtain the evaluation letter for the product related to the illegal way”.

The concession was sought citing age

During the camera surveillance hearing, the CBI had said that the culprits should be strictly treated as the nature of the crime is very serious and they should be sentenced to a maximum of seven years imprisonment. Court sources said that the counsel appearing for the convicts had appealed for mercy citing age. It is noteworthy that Jaitley, a close aide of the then Defense Minister George Fernandes, resigned as the President of the Samata Party after being accused of corruption. A charge sheet was filed in the case in 2006 and charges were framed in 2012.