The Delhi high court on Tuesday sought to see the 'evidence' collected by the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency set up to probe into the conspiracy angle of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.
During arguments on godman Chandraswami's plea for permission to travel abroad, Justice R C Chopra said he needed to see the "evidence" collected by the MDMA during eight years of investigation.
The court expressed the desire to peruse the 'evidence' gathered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (under which the MDMA functions) after Chandraswami's counsel P N Lekhi contended that it did not have any material against his client and challenged Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra to show it to him.
Malhotra, who claimed that there was "evidence" against Chandraswami in 10 Foreign Exchange Regulation Act cases also, said he was ready to show the case file to the court but not to his counsel.
Claiming that the "evidence" had to be shown to him, Lekhi said he was ready to address the court on this point. The court said if it was satisfied that there was no evidence against Chandraswami, then Lekhi would not have to argue the case. However, the court posted the matter for hearing on Thursday as Malhotra wanted Lekhi to complete his arguments before showing the "evidence" to the court.
Lekhi, who had earlier accused the MDMA of doing only "cosmetic investigation" into the case, claimed that Rs 300 million had already been spent by it. It was due to the CBI's opposition that a FERA court had in December last year refused permission to Chandraswami to go abroad.
Lekhi referred to a book by D R Karthikeyan, chief of the Special Investigation Team that probed the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, in which he was said to have written that there was no evidence against Chandraswami in the case.
The counsel, who had earlier accused the CBI of indulging in character assassination in the name of further investigation into Gandhi's death, said certain politicians whose names had figured in the case were not investigated and Chandraswami had been singled out by the agency.
On July 7, Lekhi had said that when the MDMA was set up in December 1998, it had 250 men but now only 20 persons were there and it was not clear how much time it would take to conclude the probe.
The ASG said 23 Letters Rogatory had been sent to foreign countries and the CBI was awaiting response to 18 of the LRs. Chandraswami had gone abroad in the past and come back with as many as 13 cases pending against him, including the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case and the St Kitts forgery case in which he was acquitted, Lekhi had submitted.
If Chandraswami violated any of the conditions imposed by the court or tried to flee, the government could force him to come back by revoking his passport under Section 10 of the Passport Act, he had argued.
Chandraswami, who wanted to travel to the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and France for religious discourse, was denied permission for the same in December last by a trial court after the CBI submitted that it had collected "lots of evidence" against the godman in connection with Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.
In his petition filed through counsel Santosh K Chauriha, the godman said he cannot be deprived of his right to travel abroad on "wild and flimsy grounds resting on pure surmises and conjectures".