NEW DELHI: The ongoing trial in the controversial Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MPs payoff took a dramatic turn, when P. Bhaskar Rao, a Visakhapatnam based businessman, told the Delhi High Court that Rs 17 crore had been paid by the Congress to defectors to bail out the Government during the 1993 no confidence motion.

Claiming to be a close associate of Prime Minister P.V, Narasimha Rao, Bhaskar Rao, who submitted a second sworn affidavit, told the Di n Bench, comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and D.K. Jain, that he met the Prime Minister at his residence on November 4, 1991. “I was promised Rajya Sabha membership by the Prime Minister if helped the Congress during the no confidence motion.”

The Bench, however, objected to the manner in which the petitioner and the respondent were filing fresh affidavits and replies without the court’s permission. The court, however, fixed May 9 as the next date of hearing.

“On the Prime Minister’s instruct broker Harshad Mehta and hawala dealer $.K. Jain to god man Chandraswamy for giving price of defection and defeating the no confidence motion,” Bhaskar Rao stated in his second affidavit.

It further states, “accordingly, I paid Rs 10 crore o Ajit Singh, Rs3.5 crore to Anaddi Charan Dass, MP, through Govinda Chandra Munda, MP (since deceased), and Rs 3.5 crore to Simon Marandi.”

Interestingly, the affidavit is silent about the time, place and the other details of the alleged payments to the former Janata Dal MPs. It may be noted that Bhaskar Rao, in his first affidavit, claimed payments to MM MP Simon Marandi, and had also put an acknowledgement of the payments, dated July 27, 1993 (Rs 1.2crore) and July 29, 1993 (Rs 2.3 crore), with Marandi’s signature.

‘Arguing for the petitioner, P.N.Lakhi charged the CBI and the PMO with cooking up the letter to sidetrack the issue and throw up a “smokescreen” to shield the Prime Minister. He also Section 154 of Cr.PC, under which a written copy of the Rashtriya Mukti Morcha (RMM) complaint to the CBI about the payoffs should have been attached along with the FIR registered by the CBI in this case against the four JMM MPs.

‘The CBI had not produced the original complaint because it mentioned the Prime Minister’s name, he added.

Article extracted from this publication >>May 8, 1996