NEW DELHI, March 10: Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao today sought time from a Delhi court to file a reply on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea to consider as evidence certain documents procured by it from London in the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case.Special judge Ajit Bharihoke adjourned the matter till April 1 after Rao's counsel, W A Nowani, moved an application in this regard.
Earlier, Chandraswami and Kailash Nath Aggarwal alias mamaji, the other accused in the one lakh dollar cheating case, in their reply through their counsel said the CBI plea should be rejected as ``each document is inadmissible and irrelevant in present proceedings before this court.''
``The documents given in the list of prosecution have nothing to do with the proof of that charge. They relate to an entirely different suit filed by Chandraswami at London much after the alleged commission of the offence,'' they submitted.
Pathak, who died in London on April 1 last year, had alleged the accused had cheatedhim of one lakh dollars on the pretext of providing him a newsprint and paper pulp contract in India in 1983.
The CBI moved an application in the court seeking ``admission or denial'' of the evidence recorded by a London court during defamation proceedings initiated by Chandraswami against the complainant, Lakhubhai Pathak, in 1986.
The CBI said since the witnesses were not coming for deposition here, the court might ``consider'' the evidence recorded by a London court. David Cranke, who was Pathak's counsel during the trial in London, is the main witness who had to come from England, besides few others.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
