NEW DELHI, Aug 25: The CBI would soon approach the government to make necessary arrangements for sending a commission to Canada to record the statement of a witness in the one lakh dollar Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case as decided by the trial court.CBI counsel A K Dutt said that the agency would take up the matter with the ministry of home and ministry of external affairs this week to finalise the programme.Special judge Ajit Bharihoke on August 14 decided to constitute a commission for recording the statement of Canadian witness W E Miller in whose account Chandraswami had allegedly deposited two cheques of 73,000 and 27,000 dollars in January 1984 paid to him by NRI businessman Lakhubhai Pathak.Pathak, who died in London on April 1 this year, had alleged that the godman and his aide K N Aggarwal alias mamaji had cheated him of the money by making a false promise of providing him newsprint and paper pulp contracts in India in 1983.He had also alleged the involvement of former premier P V Narasimha Rao, who was then external affairs Minister, in the conspiracy. The court had earlier refused to take into consideration the statement of Miller recorded in a Canadian court on letters rogatory by the CBI following objection raised by the defence.The prosecutor Dutt after rejection of the earlier statement of Miller had told the court that his statement was crucial in the case.
