Even as you read this, Sukh Ram is a busy man in the little town of Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. Now president of the Himachal Vikas Party is a candidate for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, campaigning hard in the town where he began life as a municipal clerk. His career graph only zoomed upwards in the following years and, in the mid-1990s, he found himself minister of state for telecom in the government of P.V. Narasimha Rao. All happy stories in India usually end with a CBI raid. So it was with Sukh Ram. The CBI wallahs came knocking at his door on August 16, 1996, found Rs 3.62 crore in loose change, and Sukh Ram was suddenly more famous than he’d ever imagined. He was no longer a minister; he’d become a metaphor. So where is now? When not contesting elections, Sukh Ram lives in his large house in Kaushambhi, on the outskirts of Delhi. The CBI had sealed the house along with his orchard in Mandi in 1996. The house is now back with Sukh Ram, as his Samkhetar house in Mandi. What Sukh Ram hasn’t got his hands on is the hard cash found in his ministerial bungalow in Delhi and his house in Mandi. Wads of notes tumbled out of every corner — toilet tanks, trunks, pillow covers. It was the CBI’s biggest haul of cash of ever: 3.62 crore. A disproportionate assets case was on. The CBI found papers to register two other cases as well. Here’s the Sukh Ram case file. Case I: The CBI accused Sukh Ram of causing a loss of Rs 1.66 crore to the exchequer by favouring a Hyderabad-based firm in the purchase of telecom equipment. In 1991, DoT had floated a tender to purchase 3,000 MARR Shared Radio Systems. Of 35 companies that bid, Advance Radio Masts Pvt Ltd quoted the highest price. The company hadn’t even got a mandatory approval from the Telecom Engineering Centre to manufacture the equipment, but it won the tender. In July 5, 2002, Judge V.K. Jain of the special court in Delhi convicted Sukh Ram and sentenced him to three years of rigorous imprisonment. He was also fined Rs 2 lakh. He was, however, granted bail, enabling him to appeal to the Delhi High Court. Sukh Ram is still out on bail, his appeal is still being heard. Incidentally, Telecom Service officer Runu Ghosh, said to have been a Sukh Ram favourite in the ministry, was also convicted in this case, sent to prison for two years and fined Rs 50,000. The Delhi High Court granted her bail, pending an appeal. That didn’t stop the government from sacking Ghosh on November 14, 2003. Now she’s just another former government servant fighting to save her reputation. The third person convicted in the case was Pataru Ram Rao, ARM’s managing director. He was put in for three years and fined Rs 2 lakh. He too is out on bail. Case II: Sukh Ram was also charged with issuing orders for cables worth Rs 30 crore to Haryana Telecom Limited (HTL), against the recommendation of bureaucrats. After a prolonged tender evaluation, ministry bureaucrats had shortlisted 18 firms, noting that the supply position of HTL was ‘‘precarious’’. Sukh Ram passed an order on November 3, 1995 modifying the recommendations and giving HTL the order. On April 28, 1998, President K.R. Narayanan gave his sanction for prosecuting Sukh Ram in this case. The CBI has already filed a chargesheet and the case is being heard at the special court. Case III: This is the plain vanilla disproportionate assets case. Between 1992-96, the CBI calculated that Sukh Ram and his family had earned Rs 85 lakh, but he acquired assets worth Rs 5.75 crore. Rs 3.6 crore just lying around in his 12 Safdarjung Lane, New Delhi, and Samkhetra, Mandi. Sukh Ram also loaned Rs 1.05 crore to one C.M. Khemka in March/April 1995. Khemka has since surrendered the money to the CBI. The case is being tried in the special court. Twenty-four of 80-odd witnesses have been examined. Since Sukh Ram is now busy with his election, hearing is expected to resume only in July. Meanwhile, Sukh Ram’s in Mandi, dreaming of the Lok Sabha. Beginning this week, The Sunday Express will bringyou a status report on cases that once made headlines buthave since fallen off the frontpage
