Court awards 4-yr jail to Jaya Jaitly, 2 others in defence corruption case

A Delhi court on Thursday awarded a 4-year jail term to ex-Samata Party President Jaya Jaitley and two others for corruption in a 2000-01 case related to a purported defence deal, a lawyer said.

Special CBI judge Virender Bhat also awarded 4-year jail term to Jaitley's former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (rtd) S P Murgai in the case, Murgai's advocate Vikram Panwar said.

The court, in a proceeding held in camera, also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on all three convicts and directed them to surrender before it till 5 PM today.

The three were held guilty of corruption and criminal conspiracy in the purported purchase of hand-held thermal imagers.

The case stemmed from a sting, 'Operation Westend' aired by news portal Tehelka in January 2001.