CBI gets nod to prosecute Sukh Ram, Kaul & Thungon

Sukh Ram, now a Minister in Himachal Pradesh, is to be slapped with a third charge-sheet by the CBI for his role in the Haryana Telecom scam. President Shanker Dayal Sharma had earlier given sanction for him to be charge-sheeted in one case of disproportionate assets and the other for the Advanced Radio Masts deal.

This time, the former communications minister finds himself in the dock for issuing orders for cables worth Rs 30 crore to Haryana Telecom Limted (HTL), a firm owned byDevender Singh Chaudhary against the recommendation of bureaucrats of his ministry. Tenders had been floated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the order. After a prolonged exercise of evaluation, the bureaucrats had short-listed 18 firms for the order and noted on file that the supply position of HTL was "precarious."

Sukh Ram’s nemesis proved to be an order he passed on November 3, 1995 modifying the recommendations and giving HTL an order of 3.5 lakh corekilometre (LCKM) of cables. The FIR filed by the CBI in the cases states that the minister gave the order "in spite of the above recommendations of the department that the supply position of HTL was precarious."

The CBI clinched its case against the former communications minister at the time of the August 16, 1996 raid at his farmhouse in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. During the raid, CBI sleuths found bundles of cash totalling Rs 1.1 crore hidden in various corners of the house. The corruption cases against former urban affairs minister,Shiela Kaul and her deputy, PK Thungon have also frog-jumped to the final stage of charge-sheeting thanks to the long-awaited Presidential nod. The case against the two former ministers is that they had allotted shops and stalls to a host of their friends and acquaintances, throwing procedures they themselves had laid down to the wind.

The CBI’s case against Kaul and Thungon is that in all six shops and 37 stalls had been allotted by them against the 1994 policy laid down by them.