NEW DELHI: Within 48 hours of a controversial meeting between its new directors Joginder Singhand P.V. Narasimha Rao, the CBI this week decided to question the former prime minister in the JMM bribery case. It also issued summons to Congress stalwarts V.C. Shukla, Buta Singh, Bhajan Lal, Ajit Singh, Capt. Satish Sharma and hotelier Lalit Suri.
Rao may be questioned at his residence by a team of senior CBI officials. The others will be summoned to the CBI headquarters at the Central Government Offices (CGO) complex, adjoining the capital’s imposing Nehru Stadium. The JMM case is coming up for a hearing in the Delhi High Court on August9. The decision to expedite the CBI probe was taken by Joginder Singh in view of adverse comments from the judiciary and to dispel the popular perception that the agency was going slow.
It was, however, a mixed day for the new CBI chief. The news of his meeting with Rao, on Saturday, had leaked. Rao and Singh met at the wedding reception for the daughter of Syed Sibte Razi, a former Union minister. They soon left in Rao’s car to his residence, and were together for 40 minutes. Incidentally, this was Joginder Singh’s second meeting with Rao. He had met Rao on July 27 also.
Singh said it was a courtesy call and, in fact, he would call on all former prime ministers. He said he would meet Chandra Shekhar soon. For Gowda too, it was another day of denials as charges surfaced that a Karnataka industrialist, alleged to have been the source of crores of rupees paid out in the JMM case, and said to be close Te him, was being shielded for obvious reasons. Gowda formally wrote to the CBI director claiming he had “absolutely no links with any industrialist” and that the agency was free to conduct an impartial inquiry.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 6, 1996
