JMM case: Order on summoning Kesri after framing of charges

A Delhi court on Monday said the order on summoning Congress president Sitaram Kesri as an accused in the JMM MPs bribery case would be announced only after the framing of charges in the case.

Additional Sessions Judge Ajit Bharihoke had earlier reserved the order till Monday on the issue of naming Kesri as an accused which had been sought through three petitions in the light of approver Shailendra Mahto's confessional statement.

''I am not ready. The applications can be disposed of only after going through the entire record.... Passing an order on the applications is therefore deferred till passing of the order on the point of charge,'' the judge said in his ruling.

Former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, former Union ministers Buta Singh, Satish Sharma, Ajit Singh and Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav and former chief ministers Bhajan Lal of Haryana and M Veerappa Moily of Karnataka are among the 20 accused in the case.

Mahato, suspended from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha after he turned an approver in the case relating to the conspiracy to bribe Opposition MPs and defeat the July 28, 1993 no-confidence motion against the Rao government, had stated in his confessional statement that Kesri had knowledge of the alleged purchase of votes.

According to Mahato, Kesri had assured the JMM MPs in the central hall of Parliament hours before the voting on the motion that the promises made to them by Rao would be honoured.

Earlier, concluding his argument on charges, P P Malhotra, counsel for Satish Sharma, said Mahato's confessional statement cannot be taken as evidence unless it was corroborated with ''material particulars by an independent source''.

The prosecution -- the CBI -- had not provided any evidence to suggest that petrol pumps were allotted by his client in his capacity as petroleum minister to the opposition MPs who voted against the motion.

Surat Singh, counsel for Abhay Pratap Singh and Anadi Charan Dass, said the CBI allegations against his clients were baseless as both had paltry bank balances which went against the theory that each had received Rs 5 million for voting for the government.

The CBI was also discriminatory in its approach, charging those against whom no evidence was available and refusing to proceed against Kesri despite direct evidence provided by Mahato, he said.

UNI