Former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly and two others were sentenced on Thursday to four years of imprisonment by a special court in connection with a corruption case.
Ms. Jaitly, her former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Maj. Gen. S.P. Murgai (retd.) were earlier held guilty of criminal conspiracy and corruption.
The case was registered by the CBI following a sting operation by news portal Tehelka.
In the sting operation, Ms. Jaitly was shown to have accepted ₹2 lakh from Mathew Samuel, who represented a non-existing firm named Westend International. The retired Major General received ₹20,000.
On December 25, 2000, the retired Army officer and Surender Kumar Surekha, who later turned an approver, agreed to help Mr. Samuel in securing a letter of evaluation from the Defence Ministry for the company's hand-held thermal imagers. They also said that they would introduce him to Ms. Jaitly in lieu of monetary consideration.
During the meeting with Ms. Jaitly on December 28, 2000, which happened at the official residence of the then Defence Minister George Fernandes, Mr. Samuel offered ₹2 lakh to her. She asked him to hand over the money to Mr. Pacherwal, and assured him of her help.
