Rao discharged in St Kitts forgery case

Former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and former Union minister of state for external affairs K K Tewary were discharged in the St Kitts forgery case on Wednesday by Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke as no case was made out against them.

Judge Bharihoke, however, indicted Chandra Swami and his aide Kailashnath Agarwal, finding them guilty of violating the law.

Emerging from the special court at Vigyan Bhavan, the former prime minister said he was happy, but said he did not want to make any other comment since the matter is still sub judice.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had named Rao, Chandra Swami, Agarwal and Professor Tewary as accused in the case which involved the alleged fabrication of documents to show that former prime minister V P Singh's son Ajeya Singh operated an account with a deposit of $ 20 million in the First Trust Corporation on St Kitts island.

After the order was passed, Tewary said it was now evident that an attempt was being made to ''trap'' him. ''I am going to move a contempt petition against Mr V P Singh and Mr Ajeya Singh. The government should now inquire into the matter to find out how they framed me,'' he said.

R K Anand, Rao's counsel, said the order proved that the former prime minister was not part of the conspiracy. The evidence available did not indicate his involvement in the conspiracy, he said.

Last fortnight Anand had argued that whatever his client had done was on the instructions of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and, therefore, he had nothing to do with the case.

However, CBI counsel U S Prasad, while concluding his arguments, said it was immaterial whether Rao had forged the documents at Rajiv Gandhi's behest or not, saying a crime was an offence whether a person committed it on his own or at the instance of someone else.

The CBI claimed it had enough evidence against Rao, Tewary, Chandra Swami and Agarwal. The statement of external affairs ministry officials, the CBI said, had revealed that Rao had seen the files relating to the passport of V P Singh and his son.

The CBI told the court that the letter rogatories sent to the United States had confirmed that no account had been opened either by V P Singh or his son at a time when the First Trust Corporation's entire turnover was a mere $ 4.24 million.

The alleged account, it said, could not have been opened by Singh in September 1986 as his passport was in government custody. No bank account could be opened abroad without a passport, it stated.

RELATED STORY:'Chandra Swami had shown the papers to someone and told them when the facts come out it would greatly damage V P Singh