The preliminary inquiry (PE No. 2/S/95) registered last year against controversial godman Chandraswami is being accorded a quiet burial by the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI). Last week, the CBI sent a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recommending that the case against the godman be closed.
The orders to arrest the godman had been issued by the then minister of state for internal security, Rajesh Pilot, in the wake of the confessions made by Babloo Srivastav, a hired killer, about Chandra-swami's links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Following his extradition from Singapore for masterminding the murder of L.D. Arora, a customs official, last year, Srivastav had disclosed to the CBI that Chandraswami had kept him in his ashram in February 1992 when he was wanted in connection with several criminal cases by the Uttar Pradesh police. In his statement, Srivastav confessed to having placed a bomb in the car of Delhi-based journalist Rajendra Jain at the behest of Chandraswami, along with Virendra Pant and Sanjay Khanna, members of Dawood's vast underworld network.
Pilot's directive had been precipitated by allegations from the Opposition that Chandraswami was not being investigated because he enjoyed political patronage. The CBI looked into the revelations made by Srivastav, and the godman and his aide Vikram Singh were interrogated on four occasions. But ultimately, the CBI says it has found "nothing clinching" against the swami.
However, based on Srivastav's revelations, CBI sleuths interrogated Pant, Sriva-stav's accomplice in the Jain bomb case. Bureau sources now confirm that Pant not only corroborated Srivastav's statement but also gave further information about Chandraswami's activities. But, for some mysterious reason, Pant's confession was not included in "the official record". This, despite the fact that the investigating agency had sought the permission of the Shahdara court to interrogate Pant.
What is even stranger is that after the three-day interrogation at Delhi's Tihar Jail, the CBI said it was not in a position to pursue the bomb case and, subsequently,Chandraswami's role in it. The reason: since the case was originally registered with Delhi's Mandir Marg Police Station, the agency could investigate the charges only if a notification transferring the case to the CBI was issued by the MHA. But the transfer never came. However, following adverse media reports, the police had to reopen the Jain case and Pant was rearrested. As for the other allegation against the godman of harbouring Srivastav, officials now say that it will be very difficult to prove in court that Chandraswami knowingly sheltered him. Going by the law, the harbourer can be booked only if it is established that he had knowledge of crimes committed by the person he was shielding.
Pilot had also ordered an inquiry into Chandraswami's alleged links with Daw-ood Ibrahim. According to Srivastav, Arora was killed because he had information about the Bombay blasts. Chandra-swami's harbouring of Srivastav and former minister Arif Mohammed Khan's claims that he had pictures of the god-man with Dawood's hitmen, hinted at definite links. But concrete proof has remained elusive.
And now, Chandraswami, a master of crisis management skills, has somehow managed to win over a one-time sworn adversary, Somchai Chaisri Chawla, a Thailand-based NRI.Chawla had accused the godman of cheating him of $250,000 in March 1995, and the Thailand police had issued arrest warrants against Chandraswami and Vikram Singh. The NRI had also complained to the Prime Minister then and had sought the protection of the Delhi police on the grounds that he was being harassed and threatened by "one Shri Vikram Singh, a close associate of Shri Chandraswami.... I am being shadowed. As if Delhi is governed by the rule of Chandraswami". Surprisingly, Chawla has reportedly done a volte face and withdrawn all his charges against the godman. Sources informed that Chawla had filed an affidavit with the Indian Government last month "supporting Chandraswami." But he has been asked by the Government to present himself and personally verify the contents of the affidavit.
And so, at a time when arrest warrants are being issued against top politicians like Kalp Nath Rai and H.K.L. Bhagat, and cabinet ministers are compelled to resign on corruption charges, the globetrotting godman continues to play the "wheeler-dealer" from his sprawling south Delhi ashram.
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