COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

CBI forced me to turn approver: JMM leader

Expelled Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shailendra Mahato told a designated Central Bureau of Investigation court yesterday that the agency pressurised him to turn an approver in the MPs bribery case.

The Bureau was, however, against his implicating several political leaders in the case, Mahato told Additional Sessions Judge Ajit Bharihoke. Former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao is a key accused in the case.

''You are trying to involve a number of politicians,'' Mahato quoted a CBI officer as having told him during his police custody in September 1996.

He made the statements during his cross-examination by former Union law minister H R Bharadwaj, who appeared as counsel for former minister Captain Satish Sharma, an accused in the case.

As the cross-examination remained inconclusive, the court fixed November 26 and 27 for further hearing.

Earlier, Rao's counsel R K Anand concluded his examination of the approver.

Replying to questions by Anand, Mahato said it had been agreed between the JMM MPs and Rao that accused Suraj Mandal would raise a no-confidence motion against the Congress government in July 1993 and Rao would give an assurance on the issue.

Confronted with various statements he made to the CBI, the media and in Parliament, Mahato said most of them were false. Some of the statements were made under pressure. In some other cases, he thought it was the proper course left for him.

EARLIER REPORT:
Kesri knew MPs were bribed: Mahato

Tell us what you think of this report