NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has claimed that it has little evidence against Chandraswami in connection with his alleged proximity to both Omprakash Srivastavaalias Babloo Srivastava and Dawood Ibrahim.
However, the Bureau has in its possession three confessional statements relating to the L.D, Arora murder case which suggests a possible association between Chandraswami and Babloo.
Babloo, who was charge sheeted by a Delhi court, is an alleged gangster who was extradited from Singapore last year. He is believed to be a close as socials of Dawood, prime accused in the Bombay bomb blasts case.
Mr, Arora was a senior customs officer who was killed in March 1993 allegedly on the instructions of Babloo who, in tum, is suspected to have acted on the instructions of Dawood. Mr. Arora is understood to have had in his possession damning evidence of smuggling activities of RDX, weapons and explosives by Mohammed Dosa, a close associate of Dawood. Bharat Singh alias Munna, Virendra Pant alias Chotu (who was charge sheeted by the Delhi police in another case recently) and Sanjay Khanna alias Chunky had testified to the CBI in 1994 that they came in contact with Babloo at the Delhi ashram of Chandraswami, These 1992 meetings with Chandraswami and Babloo at the former’s ashram is specifically mentioned by the trio in their stale ments 10 the CBI.
“In 1992, came in contact with Om Prakash alias Babloo who was a frequent visitor to the ashram of ‘Chandraswami,” says Sanjay Khanna in his June 26, 1994 statement to A.S. Tariyat, CBI inspector.
Bharat Singh, in his January 18 statement to CBI DSP Harbhajan Rai also states, “I had met Sh. Chandraswami at his residence in February 1992, at that time Babloo also met me at Sh. Chandraswami’s residence.”
Interestingly, this appears to contradict the deposition under oath of Chandraswami to the Justice M.C. Jain Commission inquiring into the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi that he never met Babloo after the beginning of 1991, Virendra and Sanjay have, in there statements to the CBI, made almost identical disclosures detailing the conspiracy that led w the killing of Mr.
Arora. They have also referred to several crimes, including murders, abductions and extortions that they undertook at the instance of Babloo.
Besides, disclosures by Babloo are also believed to have linked Chandraswami with Dawood. He has testified to close ISI links that the two. Fare reported to have shared in Kathmandu.
Babloo is also reported to have confessed, during interrogation, that Chandraswami had been vastly enriched by Dawood and that the god man had sheltered Babloo in Delhi in 1992 when a “red alert” had been declared for his arrest. It may be recalled that Rajesh Pilot, the former internal security minister, had pressed for the arrest of Chandraswami in September last, but despite his instructions to the CBI, the investigating agency has still to initiate action against Chandraswami.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 13, 1996
