NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court last week took over the day today monitoring of the CBI’s investigation of all the cases against the Godman Chandra swamy. These include the criminal cases of association with underworld don is Dawood Tbra him and Babloo Srivastava, the St Kitts forgery case and those of FERA violations and income tax defaults,
While the apex court chose not fall in with the amicus curiae, or case coordinator Anil Diwan’s pica to re place the CBI Director, it stated that technically, even this case should be treated like the Jain hawala matter, pending before the court.
On the CBI plea that “it did not have sufficient material to charge sheet Chandra swamy,” the bench commented that prima facie the evidence was “sufficient to put him under a cloud for several years.”
The court reminded the investigating agency that the, been abroad about 9001 times and spent about Rs 300 crore, “What is the source of income of this gentleman? the court asked the Dipankar Gupta, the CBI counsel,
How did he get such funds is a matter of investigation, the court stated.
It also wanted to know how the so called Goodman had acquired foreign exchange to the tune of 6,000 pounds sterling without permission of the RBI, to deposit in a London court where he had initiated a defamation suit against a nonresident Indian, Lakhu Bhai Pathak.
In its affidavit, the CBI informed the Court that it did not have conclusive evidence to prove the Godman’s involvement in the St Kitts’ case.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1996
