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Government says Rajiv was principal conspirator in Bofors case

The Delhi high court today reserved further orders on a petition seeking removal of the late Rajiv Gandhi's name from the Bofors chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

But during four hours of hearing, Justice Cyriac Joseph said the court should not be overawed by the fact that Gandhi was a prime minister.

Rajiv Gandhi Ekta Samiti, a Delhi-based social welfare organisation, had filed the criminal writ petition on November 5, saying that the "inclusion of Mr Gandhi's name in the chargesheet submitted by the CBI recently is illegal and injustice has been caused to the departed soul".

The organisation's counsel, Vijay Shukla, said Gandhi was innocent and the inclusion of his name in column 2 of the chargesheet would tarnish his image.

Shukla, who had earlier listed 42 reasons for removing Gandhi's name from the chargesheet, said the high court must exercise its powers under section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code and remove his name from the chargesheet submitted by the CBI to Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke.

Today, Shukla said the CBI had implicated Gandhi just on hearsay. The former prime minister had constituted a joint parliamentary committee to unravel the truth in the allegations of kickbacks of Rs 640 million in the Bofors howitzer deal, he pointed out.

But Additional Solicitor General S B Jaisinghani said the petition must be dismissed as it had no locus standi.

"The chargesheet has been filed in the prescribed form in consonance with section 173(2) of the CrPC. Mr Gandhi was a principal conspirator in the case and omission of his name would have been a legal impossibility."

Jaisinghani said Gandhi may not be tried as he is dead, but his role as a conspirator in clinching the deal has to be probed. Anything that he said, wrote, or did in the case would be relevant to the investigations.

"Mr Gandhi is not a mere accused. There will be findings to prove that he was conductor of the orchestra. The petition seeking his name deleted from the chargesheet is frivolous and politically motivated. It must be dismissed," he said.

Jaisinghani said the prosecuting agency would have been guilty of dereliction of duty if it had kept Gandhi's name out. Naming him in the chargesheet fulfilled the CBI's legal obligations, he said.

The additional solicitor general said the question of Gandhi being defamed did not hold much weight as his legal heirs -- family members or near relatives -- were not a party to the petition. He said an additional chargesheet would be filed by the CBI after more documents arrive from Switzerland.

When the case comes up for hearing at the trial court on December 30, there will be scrutiny of available documents, which may take about six months, he said.

UNI

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