Govt wants to sue Tehelka but Bangaru in the way

Govt wants to sue Tehelka but Bangaru in the way
SHARAD GUPTA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 21: The Government may not carry out its threat to sue the Tehelka.com team for defamation as the move could lead to prosecution of former BJP chief Bangaru Laxman also. Defence Minister Jaswant Singh had told BJP MPs yesterday the Government was considering filing a suit against Tehelka. This apparently had the backing of Home Minister L K Advani.

The Government's enthusiasm to drag the news portal to court has been dampened by the Law Ministry's latest assessment. Both bribing of public servants and receiving bribes are criminal offences. If the NDA Government takes Tehelka to court for `fabrication', willy-nilly Bangaru Laxman's accepting of Rs 1 lakh, captured dramatically by a spy cam, will come up and demands for his prosecution will become strident.

Laxman is a public servant, being a Rajya Sabha MP. And the Government's second thoughts on the matter mean that despite on-camera evidence that he took the money, he will not face any action.

Minister for Law Arun Jaitley today denied there was any move to sue the web portal. ``I am not aware of any such decision'', he told The Indian Express today.

``Bangaru has taken a Rs-1 lakh bribe for his new year party from West End company to push its case in the PMO. An FIR should be registered againsthim,'' Congress MP Kapil Sibal demanded today. Former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh too demanded arrest of Laxman and those PMO officials who are said to have made money from arms deals. ``Kalpnath Rai was sent to jail merely on the basis of a statement of his OSD. Here there is clinching evidence of corruption against BJP, Samata leaders and PMO officials,'' he said today.

This dilemma of the Government is forcing it to ignore what it is privately pointing out as many glitches in Tehelka's story. For instance, the claim of Samata Party Minister V Sreenivasa Prasad -- who, the Tehelka tapes said, had received Rs 2 lakh on behalf of party chief Jaya Jaitly -- that he was not even in town on that day.

Who had then received the money, ask Government officials, questioning the credibility of the tapes. Tehelka has since then tried to explain that they handed over the money to someone they believed was Sreenivasa Prasad.

There are other discrepancies as well, says the Government. While Jaya Jaitly has been shown in the tape as telling the Tehelka reporters to ``send the money to our Minister'', Tehelka has reportedly claimed to have given the money in Jaya's presence only.

There is neither the face, nor voice of any other person like Prasad -- except for Jaya, Maj Gen Murgai and the Tehelka reporters -- on the tape.

Government sources said there were many other chinks in Tehelka's story, like the allegations that the BJP bagged several crores in defence contracts like purchase of T-90 tanks, Sukhoi fighter aircraft and Barak missiles though all the three deals were negotiated and signed during previous Congress or United Front regimes.

``Was it possible for an Opposition party to get kickbacks from a defence deal,'' asked a senior NDA minister today. Similarly, there is the allegation that Home Ministry officials made money in border fencing though the job was commissioned by the Defence Ministry.

Threatened with a defamation suit by Advani, Tehelka had not only disowned its own reporter, Matthew Samuel's statement but also submitted an apology to Advani.