A Special CBI court today ordered trial of former Samata Party President Jaya Jaitly and two others charged with taking bribe and criminal conspiracy to influence a fictitious deal. Special CBI Judge Kawal Jeet Arora put Ms. Jaitly, her erstwhile party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and retired Major General S P Murgai on trial after they pleaded not guilty to the charges framed by the court against them for conspiring with each other and accepting gratification for obtaining supply order of defence equipment in favour of a private firm.

The case against Jaitly and the other two was lodged on the basis of a sting, 'Operation Westend,' conducted by newsportal tehelka.com in 2000, purportedly exposing alleged corruption in defence deals. George Fernandes, who was founder of Samata party, was the Defence Minister when the sting was carried out.