7 June 2003

CBI READY TO CHARGE-SHEET FORMER UNION MINISTER

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Ready with a bulky over 600-page investigation report, the CBI has sought the Lok Sabha Speaker's permission to charge-sheet former Union Minister of State for Finance Gingee Ramachandran for corruption in the transfer-for-cash scam while proceeding to interrogate him by slapping a 10-point questionnaire on him.

The simultaneous May 22 arrest of his personal assistant Perumal Swamy alias Babu in Delhi and that of Chennai-based fixer auditor A Krishnamurthy suspected to be the kingpin in the scam involving bribes taken for transfers of senior officials had forced the Minister to resign.

The CBI suspects that the Minister was himself sharing the booty in these transfers and the gainer was not only his high-profile PA, but it does not want to lay hands on him immediately as it wants to give him a chance to clarify and comment on the document seized to implicate him, a top CBI source disclosed on Saturday.

The 10-point questionnaire seeking the former Minister's cooperation in the investigation, which is the polite way of the CBI interrogating the political bigwigs, was dispatched to him in Chennai as well as at his residential address in New Delhi.

A special messenger was deputed on Friday to deliver the questionnaire to the minister, seeking his reply within a fortnight. A bunch of papers are attached with the questionnaire for the minister to verify or deny them, the source said.

Since Ramachandran happens to be a member of Parliament, he is privileged not to answer the questionnaire and as such any further interrogation in person or slapping of chargesheet on him will require the Lok Sabha Speaker's permission, which has already been sought pointing out that the CBI apprehends an active role of the former Minister in the transfer scam.

The Speaker may deny, delay or give quick clearance to the CBI, the source said, pointing out that the ball was now in the court of Speaker Manohar Joshi.

Gingee Ramachandran may not be able to escape the CBI interrogation nor can he refuse to respond to the questionnaire alike Congress MP Priya Ranjan Das Munshi who frustrated the CBI inquiry into a forged letter of the then Union Cabinet Secretary T R prasad as the two cases are different, the source said.

Das Munshi could claim privilege since the letter in dispute was authenticated by him in the Lok Sabha and the law disallows prosecution of any MP for any act he does in Parliament while the CBI already has all telltale evidence to implicate Ramachandran, the source pointed out.

CBI SITTING OVER LANDMINE IN TRANSFER SCAM

The Chennai-based auditor A Krishnamurthy, the kingpin in the transfer-for-cash scam unearthed by the CBI last month, has spilled the beans, revealing names of 38 personalities involved and these include politicians, serving and retired top bureaucrats and two cine actors.

Most of these persons have links with the AIADMK of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha besides their connections in MDMK whose minister at the Centre had to resign and hence the investigating CBI officials feel they were sitting on a landmine that may create a political upheaval in Tamil Nadu.

Arrested in Chennai almost simulataneously as Perumal Swamy alias Babu, a personal assistant of a union minister who had to resign, Krishnamurthy was brought to Delhi by CBI for interrogations.

For the first two days, he kept his mouth shut but ultimately he broke down leading the CBI go gather evidence which otherwise would have taken it at least two to three years to prepare a foolproof case of corruption in the high-level transfers, a top CBI source disclosed on Saturday.

The CBI has prepared a report running into over 600 pages on the basis of information provided by Krishnamurthy, the source said.

It had brought not only Krishnamurthy to its headquarters in Delhi for interrogations but it flew even the interrogators from Chennai. The source said krishnamurthy started talking when one of his classmates who is now a CBI officer in Chennai interrogated him. The classmate could extract information about the exact role of the two cine actors in the scam, the source said.

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