NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Former prime minister V P Singh deposed in the court of additional district and sessions judge R L Chugh in the St Kitts forgery case on Wednesday.
Controversial godman Chandra Swami and Kaliash Nath Aggarwal alias Mamaji, both accused in the case, were present during the hour-long proceedings, which began at 10.30 am.
Singh was given a chair by the judge and asked to sit by his side so that he could hear his replies properly before dictating to his secretary for the records.
Singh came to court well before time with his wife Sita Devi and was in good humour throughout the proceedings.
The proceedings began with N K Sharma, counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation, asking the former prime minister if he could verify the signatures on the documents of the First Global Trust Corporation. Singh had a close look and denied that those were the signatures of his son Ajeya.
He was then asked if the documents wherein he was shown as a beneficiary was at any stage signed by him in Hindi. V P Singh said that the signatures were forged.
"Is it correct that you came to know about the alleged foreign account of your son through Arif Mohammad Khan?" Sharma asked.
"Yes, I remember when I, Arif and another friend were together at a meeting and when we were just about to depart, Arif did mention this thing to me. In fact he gave me a slip where the name of the First Global Trust Corporation was written in bold letters. He asked me if my son had any foreign account. I told him he did not have any. He then told me that Chandra Swami had documents about the said account and I should meet him. I told him that Chandra Swami could announce this thing on television the same day," he told the court.
Replying to another whether he knew about the account before Arif told him about it, Singh replied in negative. He said he got the details from newspapers. "Yes, I got calls from the people in the media and they were talking about it. The story was printed in the newspapers," he said.
When asked if he could identify Chandra Swami, he said, "I can."
During cross-examination Chandra Swami's counsel Rajinder Singh asked him if he had met Chandra Swami on a number of occasions. "I met Chandra Swami only on one occasion. Yashpal Kapoor, who was close to Mrs (Indira) Gandhi, used to ring me up and tell me that a Jain Muni wanted to meet me. I knew only Sushil Jain Muniji. I thought Kapoor was talking about him. Since he had called me several times therefore I took the address from him and went to the place. When I arrived there I found boys with long hair hanging around there. This was not the kind of atmosphere that is expected around a holy man."
"I met Chandra Swami but I did not like him. When Mrs Gandhi was in power Chandra Swami could hang around her, but when she lost the elections in 1977 he went abroad and returned to India only in 1980 when she came back to power," he said.
When asked if he met him again, Singh said, "After Mrs Gandhi returned to power, I found two of his chelas hanging around my flat in Kailash Hills. They would say that I should meet Chandra Swami. I told that I was not interested in meeting a man who left India when Mrs Gandhi lost elections and has come back when she is in power."
In reply to another question on whether he had read out his poems to Chandra Swami, he said, "I don't remember having done anything like this."
Chandra Swami's counsel then asked him if the CBI officials told him they were taking his specimen signatures to compare with the originals. "Yes, the investigating officer did tell me about it when he obtained my signatures in Hindi," Singh added.
When asked how he could tell if the signatures were fake, Singh said, "I can tell you because they are not my signatures just as I can tell my face from the one of the imposter," he said.
The former prime minister's deposition would continue Thursday.
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
