CD row: Shanti Bhushan drags Amar Singh to court

The war over the alleged fake CD reached the Supreme Court on Monday when senior advocate Shanti Bhushan sought contempt proceedings against politician Amar Singh for "fabricating" conversations between the two and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"The informant (Shanti Bhushan) is approaching this court as one CD purportedly containing a completely fabricated conversation between the informant, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, which clearly cast aspersions on the judiciary, has been circulated among the media," the petition said.

Bhushan, a member of the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill, wants his plea be placed before Chief Justice S H Kapadia for taking suo motu cognizance. He has also filed forensic reports of two different laboratories, including the Truth Lab, Hyderabad, which is headed by a former director of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory.

Bhushan sought a probe by a special investigation team to find out as to who all are the persons involved in the fabrication of the CD or its dissemination. In support of his allegations against Amar Singh, Bhushan has compared the excerpts of conversations of the CD, relating to him, with the earlier ones of the expelled leader of the Samajwadi Party, which was released in 2006, and now have become part of the SC records.

"Once it becomes clear that the CD is fabricated, the question then arises as to who has fabricated this CD. It seems clear that Amar Singh must be involved in this fabrication as he states in the purported conversation that Shanti Bhushan is sitting with him.

"The fact of the matter is that the informant has never met the alleged contemnor and, therefore, if this sentence is continuous and is, as it seems to be in Amar Singh's voice. Then clearly Singh has either engineered the CD or has cooperated in its fabrication," the petition said.

The act of fabricating the CD and then sending it anonymously to various news channels and newspapers is a serious attempt to bring not only the informant but also the judiciary under cloud and needs to be taken serious cognizance of, it said.

The senior lawyer has expressed apprehension that the leaking of the CD could be a part of bigger design as the police did not take his complaint with due seriousness.

"Clearly the attempt is not to take the complaint seriously and to not investigate the matter seriously. This may be at the behest of powerful interests which have very high stakes not only in the 2G case which has been reserved by a bench presided over by the judge named in the fabricated CD but also against the anti-corruption law, which is under drafting," the plea said.