Chandra Swami pleads against order in St Kitts case

Controversial tantrik Chandra Swami and his secretary Kailashnath Aggarwal filed a petition in the Delhi high court on Wednesday, challenging the legality of Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke's order in the St Kitts cheating case.

Justice Anil Deb Singh, after hearing a brief argument by Chandra Swami's counsel Harjinder Singh, issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation to submit its reply on or before August 27, the next date of hearing of the case.

Singh argued that the charges against his client have been made on the basis of the statement given by the only witness in the case, S C Nahata.

The counsel said there was no evidence of any conspiracy or fraud committed by Chandra Swami alias Nemi Chand Jain or Aggarwal. He said Nahata had accepted that his statement was based on a telephonic conversation between Chandra Swami and Rajiv Gandhi associate Satish Sharma which he heard in New York.

When the charges have been quashed against former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and former Union minister of state K K Tewary, on what grounds were his clients found involved in the case, he asked.

Rao and Tewary were discharged by the judge citing absence of enough evidence against them. However, he had ordered framing of charges against Chandra Swami and Aggarwal.

Discharging Rao and Tewary, Judge Bharihoke had said the evidence collected by the CBI against the two of them was not strong enough to justify framing of charges.

In his 37-page order, the judge, ordering framing of charges against Chandra Swami and Aggarwal, said a prima facie case to justify framing of charges under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 195 (fabrication of documents in order to secure conviction) and Section 469 (forging of documents) read with Section 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code was disclosed against them and the duo were to be charged accordingly.