CBI files chargesheet against Jaya Jaitley,2 others in Tehelka case

New Delhi, Dec 27 (UNI) The CBI today filed a chargesheet against three people, including Jaya Jaitley -- former President of Samata Party, her party colleague and a retired Major General for taking bribe to show favours to a fictitious firm in getting supply orders for defence equipment.

Others include a Samata Party functionary Gopal Pacherwal and Major General (retd) S P Murgai, a Defence supplier.

The chargesheet, 7th in the series, filed in the court of Special Judge here, was made under section 120-B of the IPC (r/w Section 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act), for accepting a Rs two lakh bribe by the then President of a political party from the 'Tehelka' representative, according to the CBI.

The bribe taken by Ms Jaitley was to exercise her personal influence on officials of the Ministry of Defence to show favour to the fictitious company 'M/s West End International' of the Tehelka.com to get supply orders for defence equipment including Hand-Held Thermal Imagers (HHTI).

The retired Major General has been charged for receiving Rs 1.2 lakh for arranging the meeting of the 'Tehelka' representative with Ms Jaitley besides demanding another Rs five lakh for getting the evaluation letter issued from the Ministry of Defence for the purported product of M/s West End International.

CBI had registered the case on December 6, 2004.

Investigations revealed that between September 2000 and January 2001 a representative of 'Tehelka.Com' held several meetings with the retired Major General during which detailed discussions were held on getting them an audience with Ms Jaitley and bribes given.

Samples of voices and images of the Ms Jaitley, her party colleague Gopal Pacherwal, and retd Major General S P Murgai, a Defence supplier, and also of the 'Tehelka' representative along with the video tapes of their meetings were sent to Andhra Pradesh Forensic Sciences Laboratory - Hyderabad, which confirmed that the video tapes had not been tampered with and that the voices and images of the accused matched with that of the tapes.

During 2000-01, functionaries of 'Tehelka.Com' - a News&Views Portal, had conducted certain secret operations for exposing corruption in Defence procurements and carried the operation under assumed identity of representatives of a fictitious firm 'M/s West End International' of London, which supplied Defence related equipment.

During the 'operation' they established contacts with a number of persons, including Officers of Ministry of Defence, Army Officers, Politicians and certain businessmen operating as middlemen, including the accused.

This is the 7th chargesheet filed by CBI in Tehelka tapes related cases.

The first was filed in July, 2006 against former President of a Political Party. Thereafter, chargesheets were filed in August against a Staff Officer of Ordnance Factory Cell of Ministry of Defence and in September against the former Treasurer of a Political Party.

The Fourth and Fifth chargesheets were filed against an Assistant Financial Advisor of Finance Division, Ministry of Defence, and a retired Lt Colonel of the Army in last month.

The Sixth chargesheet was filed against an Assistant in the Ministry of Defence on December 18 last.

UNI AN LS RK2020