10-Yr Jail Term For Kalpnath; Mahato Admits He Was Bribed

Former Union minister Kalpnath Rai was yesterday sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10 lakh by a designated TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities) court for having harboured terrorists.

This first conviction in a spate of political charge-sheets of the past 15 months sent tremors through the world of politics - especially since, on the same day, former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao moved closer to being convicted of having bribed Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs to vote for his government to survive the no-confidence motion in July 1993.

Shailendra Mahato, one of the four accused former JMM MPs in the multi-crore bribery case, yesterday confessed in court that he had received bribe to vote down the motion against the erstwhile Rao government. Mahato said his colleague, Suraj Mandal, had told him Rao sent Rs 50 lakh for each of them. Former Union Home Minister Buta Singh had taken them to meet Rao before this. And Raos nephew, V Rajeshwar Rao, had initiated the offer. Others accused in the case include former ministers Ajit Singh and Satish Sharma and former chief ministers Bhajan Lal and Veerappa Moily.

 

Rais conviction, a first for a prominent former Union minister, dominated conversation in Parliaments corridors yesterday evening. It would warn every politician that any minor indiscretion could lead to trouble, remarked Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar. It will act as a deterrent.

Nine others were convicted, including Rais personal secretary and East West Airlines officials, Saboo Chacko and Peer Mohammed, and four members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, which is suspected of being behind the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. The BJPs former MP, Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Appeals are unlikely to have much impact under the TADA provisions. Only one appeal is allowed, to the Supreme Court. Rai, crying, said in court he would take that recourse.

Accused of having put up terrorists in a National Power Transmission Corporation guest house when he was the Union power minister, Rai had pleaded that he did not know they were connected with Ibrahim. Many persons came to a minister for various kinds of help, he had argued, and he could not check each ones antecedents.

Most immediately worried at the portents were some of the prominent politicians accused of accepting hawala money in the cases based on the Jain diaries. Some of them have hoped the cases would drag on indefinitely but yesterdays news was disconcerting. LK Advani, Madhavrao Scindia, VC Shukla, Balram Jakhar and ML Khurana are only some of those who face conviction. Prosecutions lawyers say the cases against leaders like Arif Mohammed Khan and Rai are particularly strong and the court is hearing them daily.

Politicians speculated on the cause for Mahatos confession before Judge Ajit Bharihoke, after several changes of stand, some under political pressure. He had been displayed to reporters by BJP leader AB Vajpayee a year ago as an innocent tribal who was purchased by the Congress. Then, he denied he was bribed.

Later, he agreed to turn approver, then backed out.

If he would have recorded the statement and the court would have allowed him to turn approver then, none of the accused could have escaped, a CBI officer said.

He hoped that Mahato could still turn approver and strengthen the prosecution case.

Some BJP leaders such as party secretary Sangh Priya Gautam, wondered if Mahatos new stand was part of Congress chief Sitaram Kesaris tactics to get the better of his predecessor, Rao, whose supporters have been trying to corner Kesari over recent electoral reverses.

Kesari and many of his supporters have a good equation with tribal leaders. Plus, both he and Mahato hail from Bihar. Mahato has been in the political wilderness since the BJP expelled him after he changed his stance. The JMM refused to readmit him.

BJPs former Union minister Karia Munda, also a tribal from Bihar, held that Mahato had finally spoken the truth after being cornered.