Sukh Ram is in a coma, counsel tells court

Former Union minister Sukh Ram has slipped into a state of coma, his counsel on Friday told a Delhi court, which deferred the matter for Saturday.
 
Sukh Ram was recently convicted in a 1993 telecom scam and ordered to surrender.

"He has gone into a coma, he cannot move from the hospital," his counsel told Special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge Dharmesh Sharma.

Sukh Ram, 86, was directed by the Supreme Court to surrender before the trial court on Thursday but he avoided the same citing medical reasons.

His counsel had submitted that Sukh Ram was hospitalised after undergoing computerised tomography angiography.

Special Judge Sharma deferred the matter for Saturday as concerned Special CBI Judge Sanjiv Jain was on leave today.

"As the applicant/convict has gone into coma and the judge in-charge is on leave and is joining his duty tomorrow, let the matter be put up for consideration before him tomorrow at 10 am," Special Judge Sharma said.

The two other convicts -- former bureaucrat Runu Ghosh and Hyderabad-based businessman P Rama Rao -- had surrendered before the trial court on Thursday and were sent to jail to serve their sentence of two and three years respectively.

While upholding their conviction, the high court had directed all the three convicts to surrender before the trial court on January 5 to undergo their jail terms.

The three convicts had approached the apex court to grant them relief so that they would not have to surrender.

The apex court refused to entertain their plea, saying that their appeal against the Delhi high court would be listed for hearing only after they surrender before the trial court.