HOW long can former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao escape the charge that money was paid to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MPs to save his government in 1993? This question popped up again last week after the CBI arrested sitting JMM MP Shibhu Soren and three former MPs—Suraj Mandal, Shailendra Mahto and Simon Marandi—in Delhi and Jamshedpur, charging them with accumulating Rs 3.5 crore without being able to explain where it came from.
The focus of the CBI investigation seems to be on the acceptance of the money rather than the source from where it came, which according to the FIR registered by the CBI and the accounts of those interrogated, could well be Rao. But nothing conclusive can be said, since according to CBI officials, the accounts of the Jharkhand MPs are varied. "Several Congressmen have been named," says a CBI source, declining to comment whether the agency was looking at Rao as the key suspect.
Says petitioner Ravindra Kumar, whose Rashtriya Mukti Morcha was the prime mover in the case when it went into appeal in the high court: "It's a cover-up. All witnesses point to Rao's direct involvement. Now to say that he is innocent is a travesty of justice." Though the CBI has not actually said this, well-placed sources in the agency say that after months of investigation and examination of about 50 witnesses, they have failed to link Rao directly with the payoff. "The public perception is that Rao gave the money. The legal perception is that nothing of the type took place," says an official involved with the investigation.
If the money was indeed accepted, as the CBI says it was, what was it paid for? To find the answer, a team of CBI sleuths headed by Joint Director Ananthachari, DIG Salim Ali and SP
A.K. Sinha visited Rao at his Motilal Nehru Marg residence on September 4 to question him on his alleged role in paying off the MPs to save his government from a no-confidence motion. But as CBI examinations go, the interrogation was very mild. The officers referred to the charges made against him and politely asked Rao if the said charges were true. Rao, with his characteristic pout, replied he wasn't aware of the charges. So the matter was gently dropped, without the usual grilling. Then was Rao's interrogation conducted for the benefit of the high court to which the agency had to submit its report on September 9?
Further, does that let Rao off the hook? Not if one were to believe Chhatrapati Shah Munda's tale. Munda, a former CPI activist who left the JMM subsequently to join the Congress (T), told the CBI that former minister Rajesh Pilot had sought his help to get Shailendra Mahto, then a JMM MP, to vote against the July 1993 no-confidence motion against Rao.
Pilot was privy to a conversation he had with Rao informing him that Mahto was sulking on the eve of the no-confidence motion because Suraj Mandal (also a JMM MP then) had deprived him of "his share".
Rao, in Pilot's presence, apparently promised to make "alternative arrangements" for the aggrieved Mahto. In a statement recorded by the CBI on August 24, Munda revealed that Rao was at his Race Course Road residence with V.C. Shukla, R.K. Dhawan, Satish Sharma, Ajit Singh, former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal and industrialist Lalit Suri when he instructed Munda to talk to Mahto, following which Munda and Pilot met Mahto, and persuaded him to vote against the motion.
In the plethora of statements recorded by the CBI, Lalit Murmu's account comes closest to corroborating other evidence. The secretary of the Chotta nagpur and Santhal Pargana regional committee (SC/ST cell) of the Congress was the first to break the JMM payoff story in an in house publication called Samakal-een Jharkhand Khabar on August 15, 1993. The story, entitled Bees crore mein bika Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM sold for Rs 20 crore), was published barely a fortnight after Rao had won the confidence vote.
Murmu's source for the story was former JMM MP Krishna Mardi, who in turn got the information from G.B. Jha, private secretary to JMM chief Shibhu Soren. Within months of 'leaking' the information, Jha passed away. The CBI has in its possession the FIR lodged by Jha's widow, alleging that her husband was killed.
As evidence grows, the question remains whether there is enough material to suggest that a cover-up was staged at the highest level to save Rao's government. The money recovered at the Jharkhandi Bank accounts was all in Rs 500 notes. Could this denomination have been made available in such large numbers without clearance from the Finance Ministry? Similarly, certain top members of Rao's cabinet have come under the net of suspicion. But again, there is nothing on paper. The agency has also examined JMM party coupons to test the veracity of the leaders' claims about dates, but have uncovered nothing. Rao's mild examination by the CBI suggests that the agency is willing to break new ground under a new chief. But will it get the space to do it?
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