A few hours after being sentenced by the special court, the Delhi High Court has put on hold the 4-year jail term given to former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly in a corruption case related to a purported defence deal, a lawyer said.
The high court has sought CBI’s response on Jaya Jaitley’s appeal challenging her conviction and sentence in the case.
The orders were passed by a single-judge bench of the high court presided over by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait on Thursday after he admitted the appeal filed by Jaitly through senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi seeking suspension of her conviction and the sentence awarded later.
Jaitly’s legal team moved the high court soon after the sentence was pronounced.
Also Read: Defence corruption case: Delhi court sentences 4-year jail term to Jaya Jaitly, 2 others
Earlier in the day, a Delhi court sentenced Jaitly to four years in jail in a corruption case relating to a defence deal.
Two other convicts and Jaitly’s former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (Retd.) S.P. Murgai were also awarded a similar jail term by the court.
While Jaitly approached the High Court on Thursday, the other convicts are likely to move the court on Friday.
Earlier in the day, CBI judge Virender Bhat directed the trio to surrender before the court before 5 p.m. on Thursday. They have also been fined Rs one lakh each.
The genesis of this case lies in a sting operation conducted by a news website Tehelka in 2000-2001 termed “Operation Westend” to expose the corruption in defence procurement deals in India. Tehelka had made the operation public in mid-March 2001.
On July 20, twenty years after a sting operation was done to expose alleged corruption in a defence deal, the court had convicted Jaya Jaitly, Major General S.P. Murgai and Gopal K. Pacherwal in the case.
On the basis of the sting, an FIR was registered against the four persons – Jaya, Major General S.P. Murgai, Gopal K. Pacherwal and Surender Kumar Surekha but the latter turned approver for the CBI. The CBI filed the charge sheet against Jaitly and others in 2006.
