Delhi HC suspends ex-Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitley's sentence in corruption case

The Delhi High Court on Thursday suspended the four-year sentence awarded to former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley by a trial court in connection with a corruption case related to a 2001 defence deal.

A single-judge bench of Suresh Kumar Kait today admitted the appeal filed by Jaya Jaitly challenging the judgement passed by a special court in Delhi convicting her for corruption and criminal conspiracy.

Jaitly was represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi assisted by advocate Abhijit, while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was represented by Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma and advocate Nikhil Goel.

Earlier today, a special court in Delhi had sentenced Jaya Jaitley and two others to four years in prison in the corruption case related to a 2001 defence deal observing that their actions had grave ramifications for the country's defence.

Special CBI Judge Virender Bhat had sentenced Jaitley, her former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (retired) SP Murgai and asked them to surrender before it by 5 pm today. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.

While Jaitly's sentence was suspended by the Delhi High Court, the other two convicts have not moved against the trial court's order.

The court had on July 21 convicted the three under charges of dealing with criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The CBI, in its charge-sheet against the three persons filed in 2006, had alleged that the accused accepted illegal gratification from Mathew Samuel, who is a representative of company Westend International. The illegal gratification was accepted for obtaining supply orders for hand-held thermal imagers from the army, the probe agency had said.

( With inputs from ANI )