A Delhi court Tuesday allowed former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitley, facing trial in a graft case linked to a purported defence deal, to visit Singapore for a week to attend a debate.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Kanwaljeet Arora allowed Jaitley’s plea to visit abroad from May 30 to June 8 to attend the panel debate on furnishing a surety bond of Rs.3 lakh in the form of fixed deposit receipts of a bank and asked her not to extend her stay in Singapore.
She plans to attend a panel debate on “Smith Women Leading Change: Asia 2012”.
“Balancing the twin interest of justice to be done at the earliest, on one hand, and right to carry on her avocation and to facilitate her to participate in the discussion, on the other hand, the present application filed by accused Jaya Jaitley is allowed,” said the court.
The court also asked Jaitley to submit her itinerary details along with the address where she would be staying in Singapore. It also asked her to appear before the court within 48 hours after returning to India and deposit her passport with it.
“I have perused the record which reveals that accused was, in fact, granted such permission on earlier occasions also and had not misused the same,” the judges said.
Jaitley is facing trial for allegedly taking Rs.2 lakh as bribe in December 2000 for recommending a fictitious defence deal to the defence ministry.
Counsel Vipin Tyagi, apearing for Jaitley, told the court that she is a social activist and had been granted such permissions earlier also and never misused the relief.
The case stems out of a sting operation, ‘Operation Westend’ aired by news portal Tehelka.com in January 2001.
The CBI alleged that Jaitley, her former party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (retd) S.P. Murgai accepted illegal gratification from Mathew Samuel, a person posing as a representative of company Westend International. The illegal gratification was accepted for obtaining supply orders for hand held thermal imagers from the army.
The CBI filed the charge sheet against Jaitley and two others in 2006.