MOS Manikrao Gavit gets a clean chit

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) Minister of State for Home Manikrao Gavit was today given a clean chit and absolved of all the charges levelled against him in a Zee TV expose on August 13, 2006.

Announcing this in the Rajya Sabha, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said that the inquiry held into the allegations established that the voice, purportedly of the minister talking to a jailed don, was not that of Mr Gavit.

He said that Mr Gavit had said that he had not spoken to any channel and his voice was fabricated.

Mr Patil said further investigation to ascertain how the undertrial had a telephone inside the jail and with whom he actually held the conversation was still on and he would come back to the House as soon as the probe was completed.

He said priority, however, had been given to ascertain whether it was Mr Gavit's voice or not as Mr Gavit had been staying away from the House and wanted the probe to be over by August 25.

The Home Minister said that Mr Gavit had written a letter to the Prime Minister saying that if he was proved guilty, he would renounce politics.

Mr Patil said that CBI was asked to inquire into the matter and it had collected the tapes and sent them to the central forensic laboratory for voice test. It was found that the voice was not that of Mr Gavit but of a different person.

Even the audio spectrography test result showed that the voice did not tally with Mr Gavit.

Soon after the Home Minister's Statement, a couple of Bills were sought to be introduced in the house but the uproar again erupted in the House and the Chairman adjourned the Rajya Sabha till 1700 hours without taking up the Private Members' Business.

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