Strong case to try Narasimha Rao, says investigating agency
There is enough evidence to try former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and 20 other accused in the case regarding the bribing of MPs, the Central Bureau of Investigation counsel asserted in a Delhi court Tuesday.
Citing statements of various witnesses mentioned in the three chargesheets the CBI filed in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Ajit Bharihoke, counsel A K Dutt said there was sufficient material on record to show that the accused were party to a conspiracy to defeat the no-confidence motion against the Congress government on July 28, 1993.
Witnesses have corroborated that each of the four Jharkhand Mukti Morcha members of Parliament, led by Shibhu Soren and some of the seven Janata Dal (Ajit) members were paid Rs 5 million, besides being allotted petrol pumps, for voting against the no-confidence motion against the Rao government, he said.
The entire conspiracy was hatched at the instance of Narasimha Rao, whose minority government,with just 252 members in the 545-member Lok Sabha, would have fallen if the MPs had not been bought over, Dutt said.
He cited the statements of the then member Ashok Rao Deshmukh and another prosecution witness Vaidyalal Safaya in this regard. Dutt also said the money paid was arranged mainly by former petroleum minister Satish Sharma and the then chief ministers of Karnataka and Haryana, M Veerappa Moily and Bhajan Lal respectively.
A witness said Satish Sharma had collected about Rs 40 million from various industries and industrialists in the few weeks that preceded the voting on the no-confidence motion, he said.
Among the other witnesses cited by the prosecution were Ajay Makhopdyaya, the left party member who had moved the motion and the then Congress MP from Andaman and Nicobar islands, Manoranjan Bakhta.
Before the arguments began, the judge had exempted on medical grounds the personal appearance of Rao till March 20 and D K Adikeshavalu till further orders. Rao's counsel had stated that his client was still being treated at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and doctors had suggested that he be kept under observation for about two weeks from March 3. It was submitted that Adikeshavalu had recently undergone bypass surgery and had been advised rest for five weeks from March 10.
The 21 accused named in the three charge sheets included Rao, his relative and Rajya Sabha member V Rajeshwar Rao, Satish Sharma, Bhajan Lal, Buta Singh, Shibu Soren, MP, three former JMM MPs, Moily and his then cabinet colleagues H M Revenna and Ramalinga Reddy, liquor barons from Karnataka Adikeshavalu and Thimme Gowda, and former union ministers Ajit Singh and Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav.
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