CBI ends probe into JMM case, files third chargesheet

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday rung down the curtains into its investigation into the Rs 35 million Jharkhand Mukti Morcha members of Parliament payoffs case, in which former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao is a prime accused, after presenting to the Delhi high court its final report and the last chargesheet in the bribes-for-votes scandal.

Informing the division bench consisting of Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice D K Jain that the ''CBI investigation has been completed,'' senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam said that the third chargesheet in the case would be filed in the Special CBI court during the course of the day.

The chargesheet names former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, former federal minister Ajit Singh, and his associates Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, Ram Sharan Yadav, Roshan Lal, Anadi Charan Das, Abhay Pratap Singh, and Haji Ghulam Mohammad Khan as accused.

While Bhajan Lal is being chargesheeted for allegedly making payments to these seven MPs in July 1993 to vote in favour of the Narasimha Rao government, Ajit Singh and others are being chargesheeted for allegedly receiving the money.

Though Ajit Singh did not vote in favour of the government, he had received the money from Bhajan Lal, the CBI says.

On the role of two other accused mentioned in the first information report, former federal minister R K Dhawan and industrialist Lalit Suri, the CBI counsel told the high court that ''no evidence whatsoever had been collected against them.''

As for former federal minister V C Shukla, also named in the FIR, and Congress leaders K Karunakaran and Jitendra Prasad, the material collected was not sufficient for framing a case against them, he added.

Income tax department counsel R D Jolly informed the bench that property worth over Rs 30 million of four accused Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leaders Shibhu Soren, Simon Marandi, Suraj Mandal, and Shailendra Mahato, had been provisionally attached under Section 281B of the Income Tax Act.

The significance of the proceedings seemed to touch a chord in all those present in the courtroom on Wednesday with the bench, Subramaniam, and senior counsel P N Lekhi, representing petitioner Rashtriya Mukti Morcha President Ravinder Kumar, in full voice praising CBI officers G N Gupta, A K Sinha, Satish Chandra, and Vivek Johri for diligently and courageously pursuing the investigation into the difficult case.

In view of the paucity of time, the bench could not pronounce a detailed order on the case on Wednesday but said that it would do so soon.

However, Justice Sabharwal and Justice Jain said that the main objective of the proceedings was to get the best out of everyone to get to the bottom of the allegations.

The bench had started monitoring the CBI investigations into the payoffs case following a public interest petition by Ravinder Kumar in February last year, praying for directions to the CBI to properly investigate a complaint made by him in this regard in January 1996.

Paying compliments to the CBI officers, their counsel Gopal Subramaniam, petitioner Ravinder Kumar and his counsel Vijay Chaudhury and P N Lekhi, the bench said that they had all done a good job in ensuring that all facts about the case came to light.

The bench, which had time and again during the hearings spread over the last one year stressed that the case was of utmost importance to India's parliamentary democracy, on Wednesday said that a speedy trial was a must so that the country knew the truth about the case.

''There is no doubt that cases of this nature should be disposed of expeditiously so that the nation is clear about who is convicted and who is not," Justice Sabharwal said.

The judges said that they had tried to do their duty to the best of their limits and added that the power of judicial review was not a static thing.

Both Lekhi and Subramaniam agreed that there should be a day-to-day hearing of the matter in the trial court and the judge hearing the case should not hear any other case so that this matter is dealt with expeditiously.

''We must not ground the people's expectations about injecting morality in public life, which have been raised by this case. Justice delayed would be justice denied,'' Lekhi added.

The bench also had a special word of praise for the media for reporting the proceedings with ''the utmost circumspection and restraint.''

Summing up his submissions, Subramaniam said that in light of a newsreport on Wednesday, the officers who investigated the case should be given security. The bench said it understood which news item was being referred to and said that it would pass appropriate directions to this effect would be passed.

Praising the CBI officers who had been appointed officers of the court to investigate the case, Subramaniam said that they had displayed the highest standards of professional integrity and would be an example for future generations joining the police service.

Lekhi, who had on several hearings lashed out at the CBI for not conducting the probe properly, on Wednesday agreed that the officers had done a ''marvellous job.''

The CBI in its two earlier chargesheets filed on October 30 and December 9 had named 13 accused.

While Rao, his cabinet colleagues Satish Sharma and Buta Singh and the four JMM leaders were chargesheeted on October 30, in the second chargesheet filed on December 9, the CBI had arraigned Congress Rajya Sabha member V Rajeshwara Rao, former Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily, his two cabinet colleagues H M Revanna, and Ramalinga Reddy, and two Bangalore-based businessmen D Audikeshavalu and M Thimmegowda.

According to the CBI, all the accused charged under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Prevention of Corruption Act, had participated in the criminal conspiracy to save the Rao government during a vote of no-confidence on July 28, 1993, by either giving or receiving the alleged bribes. The four JMM leaders were also chargesheeted for receiving the alleged bribes running into millions of rupees.

With Wednesday's chargesheet, the total amount involved in the alleged payoffs would exceed the Rs 35 million alleged in Ravinder Kumar's complaint to the CBI.

UNI