Charges Framed Against Rao, 19 Others In Jmm Case

The designated court holding trial in the multi-crore JMM MPs bribery case yesterday framed charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy against former premier P V Narasimha Rao and 19 others and dismised all the three applications seeking summoning of Congress president Sitaram Kesri.

Others against whom charges were framed include former Union ministers Satish Sharma, Buta Singh, Ajit Singh, former Haryana and Karnataka chief ministers, Bhajan Lal and Veerappa Moily.

The special judge, Ajit Bharihoke, put the accused in two categories those MPs who allegedly received the graft for supporting the Rao government during the 1993 no-confidence motion, and others who paid and arranged payment of the money.

The court fixed May 14 for formal framing of charges when the accused persons would be individually asked whether they plead guilty or not.

If the accused persons did not plead guilty, the trial in the case would commence with the scrutiny and cross-examination of witnesses and evidence cited by CBI which filed three chargesheets in the bribery case accusing 21 people.

However, one of the accused, former JMM MP Shailendra Mahato had turned approver and was granted pardon by the court.

However, special judge Ajit Bharihoke rejected an application seeking summoning of Congress president Sitaram Kesri as an accused in the case as he had also asked the four JMM MPs to vote in favour of Rao government during the no-confidence motion of July 28, 1993.

Other persons against whom the court framed charges included former Union ministers Satish Sharma, Ajit Singh, Buta Singh and Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav.

The court fixed May 14 for formal framing of charges when the accused persons would be individually asked whether they plead guilty or not.

If the accused persons did not plead guilty, the formal trial in the case would commence with the scrutiny and cross-examination of witnesses and evidence cited by the CBI, which filed three chargesheets in the bribery case accusing 21 persons. However, one of the accused, former JMM MP Shailendra Mahato, had turned approver and sought the pardon of the court. The court had granted him pardon. All the accused, including Rao, have been charged under Section 120B of the IPC with hatching a criminal conspiracy to bribe members of Parliament to buy their votes to defeat the no-confidence motion against the Congress government on July 28, 1993.

Though the government headed by Rao did not have majority at that time, it was able to defeat the no-confidence motion by a slender margin of 14 votes (251 for and 265 against). Those who are charged for receiving bribe were the then JMM MPs Suraj Mandal, Shibu Soren, Simon Marandi and seven members of the then Janata Dal(A) - Ajit Singh, Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, Roshan Lal, Hazi Ghulam Mohammed, Abhey Pratap Singh, Anandi Charan Das and Ram Sharan Yadav.