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HC fixes hawala petitions for final disposal

The Delhi high court today fixed November 10 for the final disposal of various criminal revision petitions against the discharge of several top politicians and framing of charges against some of them by the trial court in the Jain hawala scam, which took the nation by storm in 1996-97.

The criminal revision petitions were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the discharge by Special Judge V B Gupta of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana, Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Congress leaders Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, Narain Dutt Tiwari, Kamal Nath, C K Jaffer Sharief, M Veerappa Moily and Motilal Vora and former Union minister Buta Singh, certain top bureaucrats and the Jains among others.

The revision petitions filed by Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav, former Union minister Balram Jakhar, three Jain brothers -- S K Jain, B R Jain and N K Jain -- and their employee J K Jain and certain bureaucrats, against whom the special judge had framed charges, also came up for hearing before Justice J B Goel.

Justice Goel, after hearing brief arguments of the counsel for the CBI, politicians, bureaucrats and the Jains, said the matter will be finally disposed of on the next date of hearing.

The CBI had filed chargesheets in 1996-97 in the case for criminal conspiracy and misuse of public office under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The counsel for the parties urged the court to divide the cases into three different categories -- politicians, bureaucrats and the Jains -- for quick disposal of the matter.

The high court has already acquited Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani and Congress leader V C Shukla of the charges after finding that the Jain diaries cannot be accepted as legally admissible evidence in the absence of any other corroborative material. Only on the basis of the diaries, no court could proceed for framing of charges against politicians or any other person, the high court had held.

The trial court had found Sharad Yadav and Jakhar guilty of being involved in the case and framed charges against them after holding that there was evidence besides the diaries to show that these two leaders had accepted 'favours' from the Jains.

UNI

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