Pawar

Pune, Sep 12 (UNI) Former Samajwadi Janata Party MLA Anil Gote today demanded that NCP leaders Sharad Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal should also undergo narco-analysis and lie detector tests to reveal the truth in connection with their alleged involvement in the multi-crore fake stamp paper scam and to have crime branch investigate the leak of CDs to the media on September 6.

During the hearing in the special MCOCA court on an application to make NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal co-accused in the fake stamp paper scam, Anil Gote said that he had evidence to show that NCP leader Sharad Pawar had close links with the family of prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi.

He submitted photographs of Pawar when he was Maharashtra Chief Minister sharing the platform with Telgi's brother Abdul Aziz Lad Saheb Telgi at a function in their home town, Kahanapur. Mr Pawar cannot deny having met Telgi, Gote said.

Further, Gote demanded that the Crime Branch in Pune should investigate the leak of the CDs showing portions of Telgi revealing names of Pawar and Bhujbal during the narco-analysis tests to the television channels and charges made under IPC 120(b), 201, 420 for forgery, tampering with evidence and cheating. He said that the trial by the media should not be allowed.

Gote also pleaded that the court should note that during investigations, several arrests were made on the basis of the names revealed during the narco-analysis and lie detector tests.''We have been languishing in jails for the past three and half years while some politicians are moving scot free as the investigating agency does not treat some portions of the tests as evidence'', he charged.

The fact that the SIT asked Abdul Karim Telgi how much he paid Bhujbal was in itself a proof that he had taken the money.

Besides the narco tests were carried out between December 20-22, and Bhujbal resigned on December 23 over a small issue on the attack on the ZEE office in Mumbai, Gote argued.

He also said that persons like Antim Totla and Prakash Jekhede underwent narco-analysis tests, who were neither accused nor witnesses in the scam, he submitted.

Gote also said that the CDs handed over to them were not heard as there were no provisions to check them in jail, ''we don't know whether they were tampered with,'' he said.

Public Prosecutor Raja Thackeray in his objection before special judge Chitra Bhedi, said that Gote was misleading the court, and making baseless allegations and his submission was not maintainable in law.

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