No Direct Evidence Against Advani And Shukla: Cbi

The CBI yesterday conceded before the Delhi High Court that the investigating agency did not have any direct evidence to establish that BJP president L K Advani or former Union minister V C Shukla received huge bribes in the Rs 64 crore hawala scam.

CBI counsel Gopal Subramaniam, however, reiterated that the crisply maintained diaries, loose papersheets and the spiral note pads seized from the Jains, key accused in the hawala case, was sufficient circumstantial evidence to commit the cases against the two accused for trial.

Subramaniam contended that the documents have the initials and money paid as the political expenses clearly noted, and said on the basis of the evidence there was a strong suspicion that the two accused received money from the key accused. Justice Shamim repeatedly asked the counsel as to what was the evidence other than the entries in the diaries and other papers to show that Advani and Shukla received money and did some favour to the Jains. The judge wondered as to how, in the absence of these evidences linking the two accused to the case, there could be a prima facie view that they had accepted the bribe and hence charges be framed against them. The judge said before committing the case to trial there has to be some preliminary evidence and added that until and unless that evidence was there how could a man be sent to trial which would clearly vitiate the principles of criminal law.