Former communications minister Sukh Ram was sentenced to five years in jail by a Delhi court on Saturday, and sent to Tihar Jail. Special CBI judge R.P. Pandey also imposed a `4 lakh fine.
The 86-year-old Himachal leader, a minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government, was convicted Friday in a decade-old corruption case for taking a bribe of `3 lakhs.
After the judge pronounced sentence, the former minister was attacked inside the Rohini court premises by a man, later identified as Harvinder Singh, who beat Sukh Ram with his hands and kicked him. The unarmed assailant was later beaten by some people accompanying the former minister before being caught by the police.
The former minister, on bail during the 13-year trial, was taken into custody and sent to Tihar’s Jail No. 1, which also houses another former communications minister, A. Raja, facing trial in the 2G spectrum case.