New Delhi, March 6
In the Ajit Jogi and Dilip Singh Judeo sting and counter-sting operations the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seems to have come to a dead end.

Sources say that in his statement “Rahul”, who allegedly bribed Judeo, has taken the heat off Mr Ajit Jogi and said he had “sold his property worth Rs 22 lakh to fund his journalistic enterprise. He has virtually given a clean chit to Mr Ajit Jogi and his son Amit Jogi and said that he did not carry out the sting operation at their behest but was motivated by a journalistic scoop on the lines of Tehelka’s sting operation.

While the CBI is not quite buying this explanation, senior officials say it will be tough to prove the case against the Jogis — father and son — funding the sting if Rahul sticks to his guns.

In any case even before the CBI has come to any conclusions about both Mr Jogi and Mr Judeo, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party appear to have rehabilitated them. Asks a senior Central Government official connected with the case: “It is a serious case under the Prevention of Corruption Act but what signal are both parties sending by treating it as a childish prank?”

Interestingly, even the MLAs that Mr Jogi and his son allegedly wanted to bribe to support a Congress government in Chhattisgarh have been chary about giving a statement to the CBI.

Instead, both parties seem interested in giving the case a quiet burial.

Both Mr Jogi and Mr Judeo in their statements to the CBI seem to be suffering from selective amnesia, sources said. Judeo has claimed that he was too drunk to remember what he was doing or saying that night in a Delhi five star hotel.

Technical analysis of the tape has established beyond doubt that it was actually Mr Judeo who took the money. Corroboratory evidence has also established this.

Mr Judeo however, chooses to be brazen. When contacted by The Tribune and asked about the statement he gave to the CBI, he said: “I have already been judged by the people’s court in the elections and will be further vindicated.”

Mr Jogi has taken a different tack before the CBI trying to repeatedly question the bona fides of the audio tape. He has said that the voice on the tape is not his. This despite the fact that he has already admitted that he was trying to bribe the MLAs and was doing this without Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s consent.

Mr Jogi who was suspended from the primary membership of the Congress will now be campaigning for the party in the North East while Mr Judeo will contest the Lok Sabha election.