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Court rejects CBI petition in Lakhubhai case

A designated court today dismissed a Central Bureau of Investigation petition in the $ 100,000 Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case.

Former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao is an accused in the case.

The petition sought the admission of three foreign national witnesses's statements in the case. Rao and other accused questioned the legal validity of the documents.

The three Britain-based witnesses are the late Pathak's former solicitor Fidelma Back, London-based immigration department official David Harper and the Scotland Yard's Patrick Brian. Their statements had been recorded in Britain.

Additional Sessions Judge Ajit Bharihoke ordered the issue of summons to the witnesses to appear and depose in the court.

On sending a commission to Canada to record the statement of another witness there, Central Bureau of Investigation counsel A K Dutt told the court that the government was awaiting a response from that country.

The court posted the next hearing in the case for July 15 on a CBI plea that serving of summons and response from Canada was likely to take quite some time.

Besides Rao, tantrik Chandra Swami and his aide Kailash Nath Aggarwal are the other accused in the case.

Pathak has alleged that the accused cheated him, giving him a false promise that they would get him a government contract for the supply of paper pulp.

UNI

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