FOR former CBI joint director N.K. Singh, the filing of the chargesheet in the St Kitts case was poetic justice—five years late. He moved the court soon after being packed off to the BSF in 1991 when he was on the verge of indicting key players in the forgery case, which was essentially a ploy by the Rajiv Gandhi government to checkmate its bugbear, V.P. Singh.
Now that P.V. Narasimha Rao has been chargesheeted along with some other luminaries named in the original FIR filed by N.K. Singh in 1989, which formed the basis of all subsequent investigations in the case, what was Rajiv Gandhi’s role? According to N.K. Singh, "there is no direct evidence to link Rajiv Gandhi, but the roles of Satish Sharma and R.K. Dhawan are clear as daylight.’’
"If you can book Rao, how can you leave out Satish Sharma and Dhawan? There is documentary evidence to suggest that Satish Sharma was in touch with Rao. Satish Sharma was also in touch with A.P. Nanday (then deputy director, enforcement) in Miami...he had gone there to conduct inquiries. The CBI has evidence that, before leaving India, Nanday had met Dhawan at his Golf Link residence. Not just that, the venue of the inquiry was changed from New York to Miami,’’ he points out. N.K. Singh claims that later, when the case was under investigation, Dhawan even admitted to these meetings.
And what of Larry J. Kolb, son-in-law of Adnan Khashoggi? "He too has been left out of the investigations. There is overwhelming documentary and oral evidence against him, which goes to prove certain people may still be interested in scuttling the case,’’ says Singh, who is yet to see the chargesheet.
Singh is also surprised that the CBI has overlooked the role played by certain bureaucrats in the forgery case. Says he: "We had clinching evidence against people like K.L. Verma, who had masterminded the so-called enforcement probe at the behest of the Rajiv Gandhi government, which was a scandal in itself.’’ Similarly, the CBI has exempted a crook called Dev Ketu, an NRI disciple of Chandraswami.
But Singh should not lose heart. For, these are some of the names that are likely to figure in a fresh petition to be moved by lawyers before the Supreme Court this week.
