The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly in connection with the Tehelka case.
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against three persons, including former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly, for allegedly taking a bribe from reporters of the Tehelka portal posing as representatives of a fictitious UK- based arms firm to influence then defence minister George Fernandes.
The chargesheet was filed in the CBI court here against Jaitly, Major General (retired) SP Murugai and Samata Party leader Gopal Pacherwal under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI made the 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.
In this connection, 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 chargesheet, its seventh filed in connection with the Tehelka case.
In the video footage secretly filmed by Tehelka reporters, Jaitly was 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 present when the meeting between Jaitly and the reporters took place. Surekha was allegedly paid Rs 1 lakh separately for services rendered by him in facilitating the meeting while payments were allegedly made to Murgai at regular intervals, it said.
The CBI filed its first chargesheet against former Bharatiya Janata Party 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 chargesheet 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 from representatives of the fictitious firm.
The third chargesheet was filed against the Defence Ministry's Assistant Financial Advisor Narender Singh.
The fourth chargesheet was filed against Samata Party treasurer RK Jain for allegedly receiving a bribe, while the fifth and sixth were filed against Lt Col (retired) VP 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.
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