M A I N   N E W S

Bangaru chargesheeted in Tehelka case
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 18
Five years after the infamous Tehelka expose, the CBI today filed its first chargesheet in the case against former BJP president Bangaru Lakshman, who was caught accepting money from fictitious arms dealers.

The chargesheet was filed in the designated court against Lakshman under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI, which was handed over the case on December 6, 2004, completed the investigations in 15 months. It claimed that Lakshman had also fudged the accounts of the BJP by making a backdate entry of the money received from the representatives of the fictitious company floated by the Tehelka web portal, the CBI alleged.

The CBI yesterday moved an application in the court for granting permission to make Satyamurthy, personal secretary to Bangaru Lakshman an approver in the case and grant him pardon.

The CBI said Lakshman allegedly fudged the BJP’s account books to accommodate the payment received from the fictitious firm, as he had claimed after Tehelka’s sting operation that the money was meant for party funds.

The CBI claimed that during the investigations, the former BJP president had admitted to taking Rs 1 lakh from the news portal’s reporters posing as arms dealers but maintained the money was meant for “party funds”.

Sources said Lakshman, who was grilled by the anti-corruption unit during the investigations, told the CBI sleuths that he had received the money from the purported arms dealers for party funds.

The former BJP president, has, however, publicly denied all allegations, including the charge by the Tehelka sting operation team that he had demanded payment in foreign currency.

In 2004, the CBI had registered five cases in connection with the Tehelka expose, including one naming Lakshman and two of his personal staff members — N. Uma Maheshwar Raju, alias Raju Venkatesh, and Satyamurthy — under Section 120-B of the IPC and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

However, CBI spokesman said nothing concrete could be found against Raju Venkatesh and he had been named in column two of the chargesheet, which means that investigation against him would continue.

A major political controversy had broken out when the Tehelka tapes were made public in March, 2001, leading to the resignation of Lakshman and then Defence Minister George Fernandes, who was, however, reinducted after the 9/11 terror attacks in the USA.

Lakshman was shown in the Tehelka video footage accepting the money and demanding additional payments in dollars for rendering assistance in the fictitious firm’s effort to sell hand-held thermal imager to the armed forces.