Former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly and two others have been convicted in a two-decade-old defence corruption case, stemming from a sting operation by the Tehelka news portal.
Special judge Virender Bhat at a Delhi CBI court on July 21 held Jaitly, her former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (retired) S.P. Murgai guilty of corruption and criminal conspiracy relating to a defence deal. The court will hear arguments on sentencing on July 29.
Tehelka had aired “Operation Westend” in January 2001, purportedly showing people in high places accepting bribes from a fictitious company for the supply of hand-held thermal imagers from the army.
The meetings purportedly took place at the official residence of the then defence minister George Fernandes, a party colleague of Jaitly.
In its order, the court observed that while Jaitly accepted illegal gratification of Rs 2 lakh from Mathew Samuel, a representative of the fictitious company Westend International, Murgai received Rs 20,000.
