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May 7, 2002
1859 IST

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Venkataswami panel to hear Fernandes
on Wednesday

Defence Minister George Fernandes will depose on Wednesday for the first time before the Venkataswami Commission, probing alleged corruption in defence deals in the wake of the tehelka.com expose.

In Tuesday's proceedings, Samata Party leader Gopal Pacherwal, who Tehelka alleged had taken a packet containing Rs 200,000 from Samuel Mathew of the fictitious 'Westend International' on party president Jaya Jaitly's instructions on December 28, 2000, denied being present at the said meeting.

Pacherwal, however, identified from the videotape the room in which the transaction allegedly took place as that of the residence of Fernandes.

"This looks to be the outer room where people generally meet George Sahab," he said on watching a portion of tape number 73.

"This is the inner room of George Sahab's house, next to the one where George Sahab sits," he added on watching another portion of the tape.

Pacherwal recognised Jaya and her voice from the tape.

Asked by the counsel for Tehelka to identify Samuel Mathews, who portrayed himself as an executive of Westend, Pacherwal feigned ignorance, saying he was not present there.

Earlier, Tehelka counsel Siddharth Luthra asked the witness whether he would be able to identify himself sitting next to Jaya in the tapes if shown to him.

"I may be there. It does not matter. The commission has seen it," Pacherwal replied.

Pacherwal's counsel Manmohan Rao objected, asserting that his client was not present at the meeting and "neither he nor his voice was there in the tape".

Luthra told the commission that his picture was not clear but his voice was surely there.

Rao alleged that the Tehelka was "unnecessarily trying to rope in" his client and maintained that the voice heard in the tape belonged to "somebody else".

Suspended Major General P S K Chaudhary, who was also cross-examined on Tuesday, alleged that Tehelka had "behaved like a conman, telling lies."

PTI

The Great Defence Scandal: Complete Coverage

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