NEW DELHI, May 21: The St Kitts forgery case took a sensational turn today with counsel for then External Affairs Minister P V Narasimha Rao, asserting that whatever his client had done in the matter, was done at the instance of the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Rao's counsel R K Anand, told special judge Ajit Bharihoke that instruction regarding the inquiry into a bank account allegedly held by the son of former prime minister V P Singh, at St Kitts island, had been issued by the prime minister office's (PMO) under Rajiv Gandhi.

Anand submitted that Rao had only instructed the Indian consulate general at New York to attest signature of the managing director of First Trust Corporation Ltd (FTCL) in St Kitts island where V P Singh's son Ajeya Singh had allegedly opened an account in 1986.

Anand said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had in its chargesheet tried to put the entire blame on Rao as if he had done everything in the matter.

Anand said Rao was instructed by the then officer on special duty in the PMO, R K Dhawan, to help in attesting certain documents brought by Enforcement Directorate (ED) deputy director A P Nandi, from St Kitts island in October 1989.

``Rao had issued instruction to attest the documents under the instruction from the PMO in the normal course of his duty without having the knowledge that they were forged. Indian Consulate R K Rai, in his statement to CBI has also verified this fact,'' Anand contended.

Anand told the court that the then foreign secretary S K Singh, had during investigation told CBI that Rajiv Gandhi had issued instructions to him over phone that he should talk to the Indian consulate at New York regarding helping some officials sent from Delhi to procure certain documents from St Kitts.

``Even V P Singh had in his statement said that everything was done at the behest of the then prime minister (Rajiv Gandhi) and he (Singh) had never mentioned Rao's name in the alleged forgery,'' Anand said.

Anand said the CBI had not even mentioned Rao's name in the first information report filed in May 1990 and his name surfaced only in the chargesheet, filed by the CBI in September 1996.

Requesting the court to examine the ``bona fide intention'' of some other quarters, Anand alleged that R K Dhawan and Capt Satish Sharma's names had been mentioned by the witnesses to CBI during investigations in reference to the instruction issued from the PMO (under Rajiv Gandhi).

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.