'Rao Couldn't Have Stopped This'

The story on S.K. Jain’s diaries was broken by Sanjay Kapoor of Blitz. Iwas later asked to become a litigant. Some friends asked me to become a litigant toprevent a "sell-out". A press conference held by Ram Jethmalani gave a gar-bledaccount of the corruption case. Vi neet Narain got copies of the diary and filed apetition. I was appalled when I saw the papers. The petition at that time was not framedproperly.

In early 1994 I gave the diaries to pressmen. The 42 names mentioned in the diarieshave all come out now. The Sasikala connection came from Surendra Jain. The Amir Bhaiconnection was also discovered: that he had given Rs 50 crore to Jain. Where did thismoney come from? The crucial point is, the Jain hawala network is funding terrorists. Sowhy should a criminal conduit fund politicians? The Kashmiris were charged under TADA;Moolchand Shah was charged under TADA, then released .

It is a scandal. Once the Rs 58 lakh and the diaries were discovered at Jain’sfarmhouse, why was he not arrested? It was only after the Supreme Court started puttingpressure that the investigation got going. Then the CBI officers looking into the casewere changed, and Vijaya Rama Rao brought in. The Supreme Court started asking questions:why were there only 10 names? In fact, the court even said, don’t worry about gettingsanctions to prosecute these people, just go ahead. Rao wanted to delay the investigation.

The press has completely misunderstood this. It is not the Prime Minister but theSupreme Court that is putting pressure on the CBI. The CBI chief told the Prime Minister:"Sorry, my head is on the chopping block, there is nothing I can do but file thechargesheets." All strictures against the CBI ultimately devolve on the PrimeMinister because he has final responsibility for the CBI. If the court had wanted, itcould even have summoned the Prime Minister to the court. The Supreme Court, in fact,wanted the investigation to be completed before the election.

Some politicians are now admitting to have taken the money, but they are all givingdifferent versions. There are two kinds of figures in the diaries. One relates to theexact figures, which are funds converted from dollars to rupees, and the others are roundfigures from which money was given as political donations. When a criminal gives money topoliticians he gives it for p rotection, as protection money.

The case erupted in 1991, yet no one demanded an expeditious investigation. Why werethey all silent? Because Surendra Jain had bought his protection. How can Advani talk ofinfiltrators from Bangladesh and national security when he has himself taken money fromanti-nationals? It is all very well to say now that there was no quid pro quo but whenthey knew that this man was giving money to terrorists, that the CBI was investigatinghim, why did they not raise their voice? Khurana says he can prove that Rao is alsoculpable, but from where will he get this proof if he does not know Jain? When Erricsonopened a factory in Jaipur, Jain and Madhavrao Scindia jointly inaugurated it. WhenJain’s father had a birth-day party in a Jungpura house, Jakhar and Khurana werepresent. A mango festival in Delhi was inaugurated by Khurana and Jain. Why should thesepeople not be jailed under TADA? All-night parties were held in the Jain household inwhich the entire political top brass was present. The press should ask them why theydon’t give the same version of the story. They are con-genital liars.

It could be a pre-election ploy. But the Prime Minister could not have stopped this.The risk was that the Supreme Court could have held that the Prime Minister is obstructingnational security. Actually this whole thing is a slap in the face of the Government.Anywhere else in the world, the Prime Minister would have resigned. This is notcorruption, it is actually the criminalisation of the political process , of leaderscolluding with the underworld. That instance of the hatchet man of Dawood Ibrahim beinggiven government hospitality— what else is it? The laughable thing is that the mediais now itself saying that it remained silent. Why did the media remain silent? For fouryears I was knocking on people’s doors, I was pleading for the press to take notice,but nobody did.

The critical reality has been the role of the Supreme Court judges. The judges puttheir foot down. Earlier, when Venkatachalliah was chief justice they were stalling, theywouldn’t even fix a date. Now the new chief justice set up a bench which has realisedthat the Supreme Court’s credibility itself is on trial. Till the present bench tookup the case, the Supreme Court’s credibility was being questioned.

Rao’s name is not in the diaries. It was verbally put in by Surendra Jain duringthe interrogation. Even then the CBI officer who got it did not follow the properprocedure. He should have got it corroborated by his seniors. Instead, he simply rushed tothe court with it. That CBI officer, Amod Kanth, has now been transferred and taken offthe case.

Let’s establish the rule of law. The entire system has broken down. Politiciansare not above the law. The Jains have given money to the Bombay blasts, given money topoliticians according to the CBI, now the CBI is asking, "Where’s theconnection?" It’s a joke.

I have received threatening calls, threatening to kill me and blow up my house.Surendra Jain himself called me up twice. The first time he angrily said: "Why haveyou done this." I said: "But it is not my story." He put down the phone. Herang me up again, saying: "Puri saab, I’ve heard you are a very upright person.We must meet. You must bring your wife. In fact, I insist on meeting your wife." Hekept insisting on meeting my wife. When I said I did not have a wife, there was silence,and he put down the phone. Perhaps he thought that if I met him with my wife, I would bemore amenable to a bribe, a farmhouse or money.

(As told to Sagarika Ghose)