NEW DELHI: A petition filed in the Supreme Court seeks appointment of a special commissioner to inquire into the alleged “inaction” by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other investigation agencies in dealing with various offences by Chandraswami.
‘The offences mentioned in the petition include charges of corruption, foreign exchange rule violation, harboring of criminals and forging of documents in the St. Kitts scandal.
‘The petition, which will come up for hearing on March 26, also alleges that Chandraswami had conspired with Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, the then External Affairs Minister, and officials of the directorate of enforcement and foreign ministry in” forging documents to defame Janata Dal leader and former prime minister V.P. Singh in the St. Kitts scandal.
It includes Chandraswami’s close links with people in power, such as Mr. Rao, former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, former Union law minister, Subramaniam Swamy, former UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, the then Prime Minister Rajiy Gandhi’s officer on special duty, R.K, Dhawan (who recently resigned for his alleged involvement in the hawala scam); former minister of state for external affairs K.K. Tewary and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
Seeking disclosure of the CBI report in the St. Kitts forgery case, the petition says it pinpoints to the direct involvement of Chandraswami and several other persons like Mr. Rao, Union minister Satish Sharma, Mr. Dhawa, Mr. Tewary, the then additional secretary (external affairs) Prakash Shah, former Indian consul general in New York, R.K. Rai, who was allegedly “pressurized” by Mr. Rao to attest “forged” documents relating to the “bank accounts” of Mr, V.P. Singh and his son Ajay Singh at a St. Kitts bank.
It also seeks disclosure of a confessional statement made by the then deputy director of enforcement A.P. Nandy (now dead) before the metropolitan magistrate in which he had revealed the role of Chandraswami in the St. Kitts scandal, Despite registering an FIR, the CBI had not arrested any accused in the St. Kitts case so far, the petition adds.
It also refers to Chandraswami’s links with Babloo Srivastava. Allegedly involved in 40 murder cases, Babloo had confessed to the CBI that he was using Chandraswami’s ashram as a hideout, He had also “planted” o bomb in journalist Rajinder Jain’s car at the instance of Chand swami, Although on Babloo’s statement another person, Virender Pant, has been are rested, but Chandraswami has been left untouched.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 13, 1996
