Lokpal talks off to CD start

The Indian Express had received a copy of the CD in a sealed,unsigned cover on the evening of Wednesday,April 13.

That night,the newspaper contacted all the four characters who purportedly figure in the clip — the fourth being expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh — to verify the contents (see box) and get their responses.

Both Amar Singh and Mulayam said they couldn’t recall the conversation. Shanti Bhushan denied having ever spoken to Mulayam Singh or Amar Singh which Amar Singh contradicted; Prashant Bhushan said that “such a conversation cannot take place.” So The Indian Express Special Correspondents Krishandas Rajagopal and Ravish Tiwari volunteered to visit Bhushan’s home and seek his version.

Shanti Bhushan invited them to see him at 10.45 pm at his Noida residence where the reporters played the CD in the presence of Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan and noted their responses.

The Bhushans agreed that one of the voices in the clip “largely appears to be that of Shanti Bhushan” but claimed that the talk could be “spliced”.

The next day,Shanti Bhushan filed a complaint with the I P Extension police station in which he named Rajagopal as having brought a “forged CD” to his house. Based on this complaint,the police today registered an FIR against unknown persons under Section 469 relating to forgery for the purpose of harming reputation.

On Wednesday night,Shanti Bhushan had told The Indian Express that he had never met or spoken to Mulayam Singh Yadav or Amar Singh. Interestingly,Prashant Bhushan today told reporters at a press conference that his father had met Mulayam several times but not Amar Singh.

The Indian Express cannot vouch for the authenticity of the CD or of the conversations. The clip,just under two minutes,begins with Amar Singh purportedly calling up his then leader Mulayam to introduce the senior Bhushan to him.

The clip purportedly has Amar Singh telling Mulayam that Shanti Bhushan was “sitting next to me” and Prashant — “a very famous” lawyer — can get some of his (Mulayam’s) work done (“wo kaam kara denge”). He then refers to an “Andhra matter” and names a judge.

Shanti Bhushan is then purportedly heard talking to Mulayam directly during which he makes a reference to a Rs 4 crore payment. That voice is heard saying that Prashant ‘manages’ very well (“Prashant bahut achcha manage karte hain…iske liye bahut zyada paise ki zaroorat nahi hai,chaar crore rupaya bahut hai”)

The purported voice of Shanti Bhushan is also heard asking Mulayam to “arrange” for Prashant (“aap Prashant ka intezaam kar dijiye”).

It’s not clear when this purported conversation took place but at one point the man supposed to be Shanti Bhushan refers to one “Bhardwaj” — apparently a reference to former Law Minister H R Bhardwaj who is now the governor of Karnataka — which can be an indication that this conversation might have happened sometime before May 2009,when Bhardwaj was the Law Minister.

Bhushan is heard saying that Bhardwaj was corrupt.

When contacted,Amar Singh claimed that contrary to what Shanti Bhushan had told The Indian Express,the two of them had spoken to each other. “If Shanti Bhushan says he never spoke with me,that’s incorrect. Only recently,I consulted him on the Tenth Schedule (related to anti-defection) and my Rajya Sabha membership and he was good enough to offer me free consultation. On the contents of the tape,I will not comment because I believe this has been illegally obtained (like the earlier set of tapes of Amar Singh’s conversation). This is a selective leak at the behest of a Mumbai-based industrialist,” he told The Indian Express.

Amar Singh underlined that arguing the case against him in the Supreme Court,Prashant Bhushan had demanded that the tapes be made public. “I love Prashant Bhushan,I respect Shanti Bhushanji and the judiciary,” he said.

At today’s press conference,which incidentally had been called by the non-government representatives to discuss tomorrow’s first meeting,Prashant Bhushan maintained that the audio clip had been “spliced”.

“This is an organised campaign against us. We have already lodged an FIR. The matter deals with fabrication of electronic record for purpose of defamation under 469 IPC and since somebody has fabricated the electronic record the matter needs to be investigated,” he said.

Asked at the press conference who could have circulated the CD,Prashant Bhushan said that he had filed several cases against the “corrupt,” and so anyone,including the Government,could be behind it.