Court order on charges in bribery scam today

The judge had also ruled earlier that he would decide on three petitions seeking summoning of Congress President Sitaram Kesri as an accused in the case after the order on framing of charges.

Winding up his reply on April 28, CBI counsel had stated that there was sufficient evidence to frame charges against all the 20 accused under Section 120 (b) IPC for hatching and executing a criminal conspiracy to defeat through illegal means the July 28, 1993 no-confidence motion against the Rao government.

Besides Rao, the accused included former Union ministers Buta Singh, Satish Sharma and Ramlakhan Singh Yadav and former chief ministers Bhajan Lal of Haryana and M Veerappa Moily of Karnataka.

Originally, the charge-sheets had named 21 as accused, but Bharihoke had on April eight allowed the plea of former Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shailendra Mahato to turn an approver, which had been supported by the CBI. In his confessional statement, Mahato had admitted that he and three other then JMM MPs — Suraj Mandal, Simon Marandi and Shibhu Soren — had received Rs 50 lakh each for voting against the no-confidence motion.

Mahato had also stated that he had learnt that seven breakaway Janata Dal (Ajit) group MPs were also paid similar amounts.

He had further stated that Kesri, who was Congress treasurer then, was aware of the conspiracy and had assured the JMM MPs in the central hall of Parliament hours before the voting that the promises made to them by Rao would be honoured.

This had raised the demand for summoning Kesri also as an accused in the case.

Following are the accused in the case: P V Narasimha Rao, Satish Sharma, Suraj Mandal, Shibu Soren, Simon Marandi, Buta Singh, V Rajeshwar Rao, H M Revenna, Ramalinga Reddy, M Veerappa Moily, D K Adikeshavalu, Thimme Gowda, Bhajan Lal, Ajit Singh, Ramlakhan Singh Yadav, Ramsharan Yadav, Roshan Lal, Anadi Charan Das, Abhay Pratap Singh and Haji Ghulam Mohammed.