M A I N   N E W S

Espionage: 13 sentenced

New Delhi, July 18
The designated CBI court today sentenced Yogesh T. Maneklal, one of the main accused in the Coomar Narain espionage case, to 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment and 12 other co-accused to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment each.

Special Judge R.K. Gauba, who had convicted the accused on July 16 for supplying classified military and financial documents to foreign agents in 1985, handed out the sentences.

The Judge also slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on M/s SLM Maneklal Industries Ltd, an export firm, of which Mr Maneklal was the Managing Director.

The prime accused in the case, Coomar Narain, had died on March 20, 2000.

Pronouncing the order in a jampacked court at Tis Hazari, Mr Gauba also sentenced P. Gopalan, T.N. Kher, S.L. Chandna, Swami Nath Ram, K.K. Malhotra, S. Sankaran, Jagdish Chander Arora, V.K. Palaniswamy, Amrik Lal, J.M. Tiwari, Kishan Chand Sharma and H.N. Chaturvedi to undergo rigorous imprisonment of 10 years.

The espionage racket, which was busted on January 17, 1985, with Narain’s arrest had shaken the Rajiv Gandhi government. Except two convicts, the rest were employed with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Defence Ministry and the Commerce Ministry. UNI