Tehelka cases against Jaya, Bangaru

The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has registered cases of bribery against former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Bangaru Laxman and former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly in the Tehelka case, where they were allegedly caught on spy cameras accepting money in return for peddling influence in defence deals.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had been working towards this for a long time after scrapping the Phukan Panel on October 4.

The CBI has filed the cases after scrutinising the findings of the commission against Laxman and two of his personal staff members, Uma Maheshwari Raju and Satyamurthy, under Section 120-(b) of the Indian Penal Code (conspiracy) and Sections 7 and 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

While Section 7 of PCA refers to a "public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act", Section 9 refers to "taking gratification for exercise of personal influence with public servant".

The cases were filed before the designated court here after the prosecution division of the CBI had weighed all the evidences, including the tapes of Tehelka, which purportedly showed politicians accepting bribe and other gratification.

A huge political controversy broke out after the tapes were made public on March 13, 2001 causing removal of Laxman and resignation of the then Defence Minister George Fernandes, who was, however, reinstated even before the Phukan Panel gave its interim report. Jaitly was caught on the camera talking to the arms dealer at Fernandes's official residence.

Jaitly, who was then Samata Party chief, has been booked by the CBI along with former Major General SP Murgai, Surendra Surekha (Kanpur-based industrialist) and Gopal Pajiwal (Rajasthan-based Samata Party leader) again under Section 120-(b) and Section 9 of PCA.

According to sources, the former Samata Party president was shown on the tapes as having said to the representatives of fictitious company Westend International that she will influence "saheb".

The CBI, in its first information report, alleged that she was trying to influence top officials of the Defence Ministry to get the fictitious company enrolled in some defence deals.

Three cases were registered separately against three suspended Defence Ministry officials HC Pant (deputy director), Nagendra Singh (assistant financial advisor) and P Sasi (an assistant). All the three were booked under Sections 7, 9 and 13(ii) (criminal misconduct) besides Section 120-b, sources said.

Some of the Defence Ministry documents also indicated involvement of some more army officials but a case was not registered against them as they were already facing court martial proceedings, sources said.