Bangaru Laxman seeks bail in fictitious defence deal case

“I am a 72-year-old man and have already undergone a bypass surgery and I am on one kidney for last so many years,” the lawyer said of the former Union minister,adding that grave prejudice would be caused if the bail is not granted to him.

Citing a high court judgement on sting operations,he said that inducing a person to commit a crime is “prohibited”.

Earlier,Bangaru was sentenced to four years in jail,besides a fine of Rs one lakh,after being convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting Rs one lakh bribe from a fake arms dealer in the fictitious deal in 2001.

Bangaru was caught on camera in the sting operation accepting money in his chamber in the party headquarters and had to quit as BJP chief shortly after the expose which had created a huge political storm.

The sting was conducted by news portal tehelka.com. The video CDs were released by the portal on March 13,2001.

The scribes of the portal had posed as representatives of a fictitious UK-based company West End International and sought Bangaru’s recommendation to the ministry for supply of “hand-held thermal imagers”,a fictitious device,for the Indian Army.

According to the CBI charge sheet,Tehelka scribes had held eight meetings with Bangaru between December 23,2000,and January 7,2001,projecting themselves as supplier of defence-related products.

The CBI had alleged that Bangaru had accepted Rs 1 lakh from the representatives of the purported firm on January 1,2001,at his office for pursuing their proposal to supply the products to the army.

Bangaru’s former personal secretary T Satyamurthy,who was a co-accused,had been granted pardon by a trial court after he turned an approver in the case.