Delhi HC stays Jaya Jaitly’s 4-year jail term in graft case

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday stayed an order passed earlier in the day by the trial court sentencing former Samta Party leader Jaya Jaitly to four years imprisonment in connection with a corruption case dating back to 2001.

A trial court on Thursday sentenced three people -- Jaitly, her erstwhile party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and retired Major General (retd) SP Murgai -- to four-year rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of ~1 lakh on each of them while convicting them for criminal conspiracy and corruption. They were also directed to surrender by 5 pm.

Even as Pacherwal’s counsel sought time for his client to surrender, Jaitly got relief from the HC. Later in the evening, the trial court also granted time to Murgai time till August 3 to surrender.

Justice Suresh Kait suspended the sentence after Jaitly, through her counsel Aditya Vijay Kumar, moved the Delhi HC appealing the conviction and sentence.

The case in question was registered on the basis of a sting, Operation

West End, conducted by news portal tehelka.com in 2000, purportedly exposing alleged corruption in defence deals. The Central Bureau of Investigation submitted a charge sheet against Jaitly and others in 2006.

Asp per the prosecution, Jaitly entered a criminal conspiracy with Murgai, Pacherwal and Surendra Kumar Surekha in 2001. She obtained ~2 lakh as illegal gratification from one Mathews Samuel ( a representative of a fictitious firm MS International Westland), the agency said. HTC