HVK Archives: Jain dairies actually disprove case against Advani, says Jethmalani
Jain dairies actually disprove case against Advani, says Jethmalani - The Times of India
Times of India News Service
()
18 February 1997
Title : Jain dairies actually disprove case against Advani, says Jethmalani
Author : Times of India News Service
Publication : The Times of India
Date : February 18, 1997
Defending BJP president L. K. Advani in the Jain Hawala case,
senior counsel and former Union minister Ram Jethmalani told the
Delhi high court on Monday that his client had been wrongly
chargesheeted on the basis of a mere mention of "LKA" on loose
sheets of paper'
Mr Jethmalani argued that the additional sessions judge V B Gupta
had "erred in law" while holding that a loose sheet on which Mr
Advani's name was found was "inter-linked" with the diaries, even
though there was no similarity in the contents of the two.
"Far from having any proof against Mr Advani, the main evidence on
which the CBI is relying in the Hawala cases, that is the diaries
of the Jain brothers, actually "disprove" the case against Mr
Advani," Mr Jethmalani told the court presided over by Mr Justice
Mohammad Shamim.
He pointed out that while the Jain diaries, which were seized from
the house of their employee J. K. Jain on May 3, 1991, showed
meticulous entries regarding alleged payments made to other
politicians and bureaucrats, it did not contain any entry about Mr
Advani.
Mr Jethmalani stressed that "the charge-sheet filed against Mr
Advani in the Rs 64 crore Jain Hawala case is "politically
motivated, with not a shred of admissible evidence to support it."
He is pleading for quashing of the charges of criminal conspiracy
and corruption framed against the BJP leader by the special
"hawala" court. Mr Jethmalani contended that the charge-sheet was
filed tinder the Rao government to show that "some opposition
leaders were also tainted 6y corruption."
According to the CBI chargesheet, Mr Advani is alleged to have
received Rs 35 lakh front the Jain brothers when he was a public
servant between April 1988 and March 1990.
However, according to Mr Jethmalani, Mr Advani was not a public
servant for about five months in the period mentioned by the CBI.
Besides the CBI had not mentioned any specific date when the
alleged payment was made and there was only a "vague" statement of
this in the chargesheet.
There were no statements of any witnesses, no admissions of the
alleged payment or any circumstantial evidence in the papers filed
by the CBI in the Hawala case.
Mr Jethmalani contended that the special judge should have
considered this lack of prima facie material while framing the
charges against Mr Advani and should have discharged him.
However, instead of doing so, the special judge had given
preference to a piece of inadmissible evidence (the loose sheet)
rather than the Jain diaries, which could be assumed to De regular
books of accounts kept by the Jain brothers, he added.
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