An Indian court last week sentenced former Telecom Minister Sukhram to a five-year prison term for taking a bribe of $5,800 for a contract to a private firm in 1996.
“The court had convicted Sukhram for misusing his official position as telecom minister in 1996 to award a contract worth $5.8 million to a private telecom firm — Haryana Telecom Ltd. (HTL) — for supply of cables to the telecom department after receiving a bribe of $5,800,” the Times of India reported.
The news of Sukhram’s sentencing coincided with raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation at the offices of the country’s top two telecom companies (Read RCR story: Top two Indian telcos under investigation).
The CBI registered a case against Airtel, Vodafone and several Department of Telecom officials for alleged irregularities in the allocation of spectrum during 2001 to 2003, when Pramoj Mahajan was telecom minister. The agency’s investigation excluded Mahajan, who died in 2006.
Mahajan and Sukhram are not the only two telecom ministers in the past 15 years who have been accused of wrongly favoring telecom companies. India’s telecom ministry and sector have long been plagued by controversies. Of the nine telecom ministers since 1996, four have faced serious corruption charges.
Andimuthu Raja, who served as telecom minister from 2007 to 2010, has been jailed and is being tried on charges stemming from the 2G spectrum scandal, considered the largest scam in independent India. The scam allegedly caused a loss of about $35 billion to the exchequer. Raja, who was jailed in February, is accused of selling the 2G spectrum licenses for less than market value.
While hearing the 2G case, the Supreme Court of India directed the CBI to investigate the allocation of spectrum between 2001 and 2007. The CBI also registered a case against former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, who led Dot from 2004 to 2007, accusing him of receiving $135 million in kickbacks from Maxis Communications, according to Tehelka, an Indian weekly news magazine. The CBI also searched Maran’s premises in Chennai.
