Telecom scam: former union minister Sukh Ram gets bail

The Supreme Court today granted interim bail to former union telecom minister Sukh Ram, convicted in the telephone scam of 1993.

Ram surrendered before a trial court on Saturday to serve his three-year sentence after his lawyer had pleaded on Friday that the octogenarian former minister was in coma and unfit to be shifed to jail.

The former minister, however, reached the court premises in an ambulance the next day and surrendered before the court which had threatened non-bailable warrant against him.

Former former deputy director general in the department of communications (DoT) Runu Ghosh and P Rama Rao, managing director of Hyderabad-based firm Advanced Radio Masts Ltd, were granted interim bail by the apex court till 16 January, while their pleas for regular bail in the case were slated for hearing.

A bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and J Chelameswar granted bail to the three accused, saying the trial court would impose the requisite condition to its satisfaction for giving them the relief.

Senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam, Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the Sukh Ram, Ghosh and Rao respectively and submitted that as they had been on bail for last 20 years and not likely to now abscond.