The Hindu : Front Page : Chandraswami acquitted in St. Kitts forgery case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 26, 2004

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Chandraswami acquitted in St. Kitts forgery case

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 25. A special court for CBI cases here today acquitted the self-styled godman, Chandraswami, in the St. Kitts forgery case. He was accused of conspiring to forge documents to frame Ajey Singh, son of the former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh.

The Special Judge for CBI cases, Dinesh Dayal, pronouncing the judgment, said: "There is no evidence against the accused, Chandraswami, to prove the charges against him; he is acquitted." The acquittal comes after 14 years of judicial proceedings.

The other two accused in the case, the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and the former Union Minister, K.K. Tewari, were discharged in 1997 by the then Special Judge, Ajit Bharihoke, while the fourth accused, Kailash Nath Aggarwal alias Mamaji, died during the proceedings.

`Names cleared'

Chandraswami told reporters: "I am happy on my acquittal but I am more happy that the name of the former Prime Minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi, whom the V.P. Singh Government at the Centre had tried to drag in the case, has been cleared."

While acquitting Mr. Rao and Mr. Tewari, Mr. Bharihoke had ordered the framing of charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery, fabrication of false evidence and using forged documents against Chandraswami and Mamaji.

The CBI, Chandraswami and Mamaji had challenged the lower court judgment in the Delhi High Court but the Court rejected their revision petitions in 1999.

CBI allegations

The CBI alleged that between November 1983 and October 1989, Mr. Rao, Mr. Tewari, Chandraswami, K.N. Aggarwal and others entered into a criminal conspiracy with the objective of forging and fabricating certain documents relating to a non-existent bank account in the First Trust Corporation Limited in St. Kitts in the name of Ajey Singh with V.P. Singh as a beneficiary.

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