The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday filed a charge sheet against three persons, including former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly, for allegedly taking a bribe from journalists posing as representatives of a fictitious UK-based arms firm.
Tehelka, then a web site, had done a sting operation to expose corruption in defence deals and bribed Jaitly to influence the then defence minister George Fernandes.
The charge sheet was filed in a CBI court against Jaitly, Major-General (retired) S P Murugai and Samata Party leader Gopal Pacherwal under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and Section 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI made the fourth accused -- Surender Kumar Surekha, an industrialist from Kanpur -- turn approver in the case.
The case was registered against all the four on December 6, 2004. During its investigation, the CBI alleged that the reporters of the portal had sought assistance from Jaitly through Murugai and Surekha to obtain orders for equipment from the defence ministry.
Rs 2 lakh was allegedly handed over to Pacherwal at the instance of Jaitly during a meeting at the then defence minister's (George Fernandes) official residence, the CBI said in the charge sheet, its seventh filed in connection with the Tehelka case.
In the video footage secretly filmed by the reporters, Jaitly was purportedly shown saying that she would put in a word to "Sahib's office" if the firm was not considered, the CBI said.
Murgai and Surekha were also present. Surekha was allegedly paid Rs 1 lakh for facilitating the meeting while payments were allegedly made to Murgai at regular intervals, it said.
The CBI filed its first charge sheet against former BJP president Bangaru Laxman on July 18 in the case related to the expose of alleged corruption in defence deals.
Laxman had allegedly accepted Rs 1 lakh as a bribe.
The second charge sheet was filed against H C Pant, a former staff officer of the Ordnance Factory Cell in the defence ministry, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 70,000.
The third charge sheet was filed against the defence ministry's assistant financial advisor Narender Singh.
The fourth charge sheet was filed against Samata Party treasurer R K Jain for allegedly receiving a bribe, while the fifth and sixth were filed against Lt Col (retired) V P Sayal and sacked Brig Iqbal Singh, and an assistant in the defence ministry, P Sasi, for allegedly accepting Rs 80,500 as bribe for supplying vital information, respectively.
