NEW DELHI: A self-proclaimed key man in the bribery scandal relating to JMM MPs alleged in the Delhi High Court that Rs 20.5 crore was paid to controversial tantrik Chandraswami to engineer defections for defeat of a no confidence motion against the ‘Narasimha Rao Government.

Filing an affidavit before a Division Bench comprising Justices Y.K. Sabharwal and D.K. Jain, who were upset over a spree of affidavits coming from the petitioner Rashtriya Mukti Morcha, the key man Mr,P. Bhaskar Rao, alleged that money was paid at the instance of Prime Minister P.V, Narasimha Rao by Harshad Mehta and S.K. Jain.

The affidavit also alleged that Mr.Bhaskar Rao, claiming to be a close friend of one of the sons of Mr. ‘Narasimha Rao, on instructions paid Rs 10 crore to Mr. Ajit Singh, Rs 3.5 crore to Mr, Anadi Charan Dass, MP, Munda (since deceased) and Rs 3.5 crore to Mr. Simon Marandi.

He said Rs 10 lakh was spent for hotel bills and traveling and the rest of the money was kept by Chandraswami.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which was asked to investigate into the matter, had revealed before the court that there was a sudden increase of Rs 1.62 crore in the account of Mr, Suraj Mandal, another MP, who along with Mr. Marandi, Mr. Sibu Soren and Mr. Shailendra Mahato, had voted for the Rao Government during the 1993 no confidence motion.

Mr. Bhaskar Rao had said in his affidavit that he was promised a seat Jin the Rajya Sabha by the Prime Minister and he kept on reminding the latter about the promise as he had accomplished the task of defeating the no confidence motion.

The CBI, which filed a counter affidavit, alleged that investigations have revealed that Mr. Bhaskar Rao had filed the earlier affidavit, allowing payment of money to the MPs to vote ‘against the no confidence motion, after being threatened by the Rashtriya Mukti Morcha president, Mr. Ravinder Kumar.

‘The CBI produced a letter written by Mr. Bhaskar Rao to the Commissioner of Police and to various authorities including the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and the Home Ministry in this regard.

It contended that in the event of contradictory affidavits filed by the same person, the investigative agency was confused as to take which fact into account and discount others.

‘At this point counsel for petitioner, MrP.N, Lekhi requested the court to ‘ask the same question to Mr. Bhaskar Rao who was present in the court.

‘The court refused to do so and observed that “till the last he was asking ‘a ticket from a political party and all of sudden there is a change for heart. We cannot shut our eyes to all these.”

Mr, Lekhi, who continued his arguments, said that the CBI was not doing proper investigations and was trying to sidetrack the issue by placing reliance on the affidavits.

Mr. Lekhi said that the whole political scenario in this country was full of corruption and if one of the participants in this comes out at a later stage and tries (o spill the beans his contentions should not be out rightly rejected.

Coming to the registration of FIRS, against the four JMM, MPs Mr, Mandal, Mr. Mahato, Mr. Soren and Mr. Marandi Mr. Lekhi said that it was one of the shortest FIRs ever registered in the history of the investigation agency and had not out its duty in registering it properly.”

The court, however, took a serious: view of the way affidavits were filed by the petitioner one after the other. It said that anyone willing to file additional affidavits in the future relating to this case has to take prior permission. ‘The bench told Mr. Lekhi, “How Go we precede with the matter as you after filing affidavit after affidavit” 7

‘The CBI in its affidavit gave in detail the past of Mr, Bhaskar Rao and said that a theft case was pending against him for stealing stationery and letter heads from the Environment Ministry and that he had been in Tihar jail for some time under judicial custody.

Article extracted from this publication >>May 8, 1996