Fake arms deal case: Delhi HC calls for trial court records of Bangaru Laxman

New Delhi, May 11 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Friday called for the trial court records on former BJP president Bangaru Laxman in connection with the fake arms deal case.

The court rejected the argument of expediting the case on the basis of Laxman's old age and medical condition. It said Laxman will spend two months in jail and fixed the next date of hearing in the case for July 5.

Laxman had moved the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction and the punishment awarded to him by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in New Delhi for taking Rs.1 lakh as bribe in a fictitious defence deal case.

Eleven years after having been caught in a sting operation by Tehelka, a news portal, Laxman was convicted and sent to four years in jail on April 28 and asked to pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh.

After spending around ten days in Tihar jail, Laxman moved the High Court seeking quashing of the trial court's conviction and the sentence awarded to him for taking the bribe from fake arms dealers to recommend to the Defence Ministry to award them a contract to supply thermal binoculars to the Army.

Laxman, 72-year-old former union minister, who was caught on camera in a 2001 sting operation conducted by Tehelka.com, accepting money in his chamber in the BJP headquarters, had to quit as party president shortly after the expose which had created a huge political storm.

As per the CBI chargesheet, Tehelka scribes held eight meetings with Laxman between December 23, 2000, and January 7, 2001, projecting themselves as supplier of defence related products.

The CBI had alleged Laxman had accepted Rs. 1 lakh from the representatives of the purported firm on January 1, 2001, at his office for pursuing their proposal to supply the products to the army.

The FIR in the case was registered on December 6, 2006, against Laxman, his Assistant Personal Secretary N Umamaheshwar Raju and Personal Secretary T Satyamurthy.

Satyamurthy, however, had been granted pardon by a trial court after he turned an approver in the case while the trial could not proceed against Raju due to lack of evidence. (ANI)