The Hindu : No impropriety in defence deals by Fernandes: panel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

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No impropriety in defence deals by Fernandes: panel

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 4. S. N. Phukan, Chairman of the Commission probing the Tehelka tapes exposé, today submitted to the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Part I of his report containing the findings of 15 past defence transactions.

Though the Commission is understood to have given a "clean chit" to the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, Mr. Justice Phukan refused to divulge anything saying "it [the report] is secret." He, however, said that "no impropriety has been committed by the Defence Minister in these transactions," in which the procurement procedure was dealt with.

The news portal Tehelka.com on March 13, 2001 had shown on camera the then BJP president, Bangaru Laxman, allegedly accepting money from middlemen. Jaya Jaitly, then Samata Party president, was shown as having said that money could be given to her for alleged defence deals. Among others who figured in the tapes were Maj. Gen. P.S.K. Chaudhary, Additional Director-General, Weapons and Equipment, Maj. Gen. M.S. Ahluwalia, Additional Director-General (Ordnance), Brig. Iqbal Singh, prospective procurement officer, and Col. Anil Sehgal, former Director in the Director-General of Ordnance Services.

Mr. Justice Phukan said that Part I of his report was written after examining 507 secret defence files and the evidence of 26 witnesses. Asked whether the 15 deals had anything to do with the Tehelka tapes, he answered in the negative saying the tapes had been sent for forensic examination abroad and the report was expected only by the middle of March and the allegations of middlemen and corruption contained in the tapes would be taken up for consideration only later and Part II of the report would be submitted in June/July. He said Part III of the report would deal with financial transactions and other issues.

Asked whether Mr. Fernandes had been exonerated of the charges in the report, he said: "No comments. I have submitted my report to the Government and I personally feel that the recommendations should be accepted." Mr. Justice Phukan said he was of the view that the public should not be kept in the dark about what he had suggested in his report. "The public should know what I have recommended." The report was corrective in nature. "This is within the purview of the Government to make it public," he said.

"The defence procurement system needs some improvement," he said. He said that he had gone through the Comptroller and Auditor-General report on `Operation Vijay' pertaining to purchases of light-weight binoculars. Asked whether there was any correlation between the submission of his report and the coming elections, he said "there is no connection. Counsel for the Tehelka portal accused me of delaying the report. To rebut that I have submitted the report soon after the completion of the inquiry in respect of the 15 transactions which were identified by my predecessor, Justice K. Venkataswami."

The 641-page report has examined 15 defence deals involving the Sukhoi, the AJT, the Barak missiles, the T-90 tanks, hand-held thermal imagers, light-weight binoculars, tank navigation systems, simulators, the Karl Gustav rocket and the Kandla-Panipat pipeline.

Mr. Justice Phukan, retired Judge of the Supreme Court, was appointed on January 4, 2003 to head the Commission of Inquiry, replacing Mr. Justice Venkataswami, who resigned in November 2002 in the wake of a controversy over his simultaneous appointment as Chairman of the Authority on Advance Rulings on Customs and Excise.

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