Sc Moved For Chandraswamis Re-Arrest

The CBI yesterday moved the Supreme Court for immediate rearrest of controversial godman Chandraswamy and two of his close associates, Kailash Nath Aggarwal and Vikram Singh for failing to produce documents testifying foreign contributions to the Dharmayatan Trust.

A division bench comprising Justice J S Verma and Justice B N Kirpal after hearing brief arguments by attorney general Ashok Desai, seeking cancellation of anticipatory bail granted by the Delhi High Court, listed the CBI petition for urgent hearing on Wednesday.

Desai submitted before the court that the accused had failed to give any satisfactory answer about the original documents to prove the veracity of the foreign contributions, which ran into huge amounts.

He said as a result of the anticipatory bail order of the High Court, the agencies could not arrest the godman and his accomplices despite their failure to respond to a three-week notice by the CBI.

The foreign donations which were being investigated, and on which the godman and his associates were not not cooperating, related to a donation of Rs 30 lakhs received by one Abdul Ismail in 1995. Ismail had not been filing his tax returns in the United Kingdom.

Another donor, Akbar Zafar Ali Veerji, had donated Rs 17.61 lakhs in 1992 but had also been found not to be either a resident of UK or a income tax payer in that country. Further, the address declared by him was that of Liechhenstein, a small European country, considered a tax haven.

The attorney general told the court that the godman had failed to produce proof of another contribution of $2,50,000 to the Trust in 1995 through the Bangkok based Bank of Commerce.

It was believed that the person, Rakesh Sharma, had fled Bangkok and had been staying in Canada. He has since been arrested by the Canadian police and was awaiting trial.

Desai said the godman had also failed to account for fax messages relating to the transfer of $3,00,000 from Hong Kong Bank to Citibank into the account of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.

The attorney general said the godman had failed to come up with convincing reply to a confidential note from the state corporation for export and import of armaments and military equipment from Russia, believed to be kickbacks to certain Indian agents and officials in defence deals.

Another payment which remained unexplained by the godman was the payment of Rs ten lakhs to a Sri Lankan national by his close associate Vikram Singh.

The judges wanted to know under what jurisdiction the accused had moved the Delhi High Court for bail and under what circumstances had the court turned down the CBI plea opposing it.

In a brief order, the judges said they were satisfied that the matter needed to be heard at the earliest and were therefore fixing it for final disposal on February 26.

Counsel for accused who was present in the court accepted notice on their behalf.

The court directed that the records of the case be requisitioned forthwith from the High Court and steps be taken by the registrar to make them available to the bench on the date of hearing.