A Delhi court has awarded three years’ imprisonment each to a dismissed senior officer of the Telecommunications Consultant India Limited and a private person for causing pecuniary loss to the public sector company, keeping in view their families’ woes and the 10-year-long trial proceedings.
Counsel for accused Ashok Kumar Sharma, the dismissed officer of the public sector company, had argued that he is around 62 years of age residing with his ailing wife as his only son stays in London. Sharma, a vice-president in a multinational company, is the sole bread earner not only for his family but also for his younger brother who stays in his village, his lawyer submitted.
Counsel for the second accused, Sanjay Bhalla, argued that he is the sole bread earner of his family. His lawyer further said that Bhalla’s elder daughter is pursuing an under-graduate course in University of Arizona, USA. His son is in Class X. If he was sent behind the bars, the education of the two children would be discontinued and the family will be ruined, his lawyer submitted. Both the accused are engineers. Sharma got the job through the Indian Engineering Services.
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The Central Bureau of Investigation had charged the two accused with entering into a criminal conspiracy, indulging in forgery and cheating to swindle TCIL.
The two had indulged in these criminal activities in the appointment of an agent in Bhutan for local support for the launching of GSM 900-based digital cellular mobile network in that country. M/s. Bhutan Telecommunication Corporation, Bhutan, had floated a tender for that in 2002. TCIL had appointed Sharma as the country manager for the project. He gave wrong information that M/s. Bhutan Mystical, which was appointed as an agent, is a locally registered company in Bhutan whereas it was an Indian company operated by Bhalla.