7 MTNL employees, 2 others get varying jail term

PTI New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) A Delhi court today sentenced seven former employees of MTNL and two others, including a woman, to jail terms ranging from four years to six months for running a racket to provide international calls causing losses to the tune of over Rs 67.20 lakh to the telecom major. Special Judge Pradeep Chaddah awarded four years jail term with a fine of Rs 40,000 on the racket kingpin Lala Ram who was working as Junior Telecom Officer in MTNL. Ram's wife Suresh Lata, an active conspirator, who used to route calls to MTNL staff for the purpose, was sentenced to two years prison term with a fine of Rs 15,000. Two other officials involved in the racket S P Grover and Gulshan Rai were awarded two year's prison term with a fine of Rs 20,000 each. Another officer Shobhraj Jai Singhai was handed down one- year jail term with a fine of Rs 75,000. Ajay Kumar Bhardwaj, formerly a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) employee, who scouted for clients in the operation, was given three years sentence with a fine of Rs 40,000. Three labourers -- Amarnath, R B Dubey and Jai Prakash -- also involved in the racket, were sentenced to one-year prison term with a fine of Rs 3,000 each. The court had held all of them guilty under various provisions of the IPC including that of cheating and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. CBI had filed a chargesheet against 12 people on November 20, 1998 four years after registering a case on a complaint received from S C Duggal, a senior MTNL official. Three accused Sushil Kumar, Shrawan Kumar and R B Chaubey were however acquitted in the case for want of proof.