Tehelka: ‘Broke’ Samata paid British audio expert Rs 5 lakh

Mills, who earlier headed the audio forensic laboratory of the Metropolitan Police (popularly known as Scotland Yard), is now based in London as director of a private firm, Network Forensics. Among his clients have been the Australian and US governments — the latter appointed him to authenticate audio evidence produced by the FBI during the siege of the Davidian compound Waco.

Last November, he received another interesting offer: the Samata Party’s Jaya Jaitly wanted him to conduct a forensic study of the Tehelka tapes.

Curiously, while Jaitly and her lawyers say Mills’s January trip to New Delhi was for two days, he himself says he spent a week on the assignment. He was ‘‘asked’’ to meet, among others, Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee.

Mills told The Indian Express his normal fees were up to 800 pounds a day but he was paid a consolidated sum for the Tehelka assignment, ‘‘As long as it was not criminal money, it doesn’t matter where the money came from,’’ he asserted.

During a recent hearing of the Commission, Tehelka’s lawyers decided to quiz Jaitly on the source of funds for Mills. Her reply: ‘‘A gentleman, who is a very dear friend, paid the money by cheque. It has gone into the party account and, with Reserve Bank permission, I have transferred the funds to his (Mills’s) office account in England.’’

Tehelka’s lawyer, Sidharth Luthra, says he will now ask the Commission to call for the party accounts. ‘‘If Tehelka spent Rs 11 lakh on a story that has become the subject of an inquiry commission, how come no one is asking how the Samata Party paid Rs 5 lakh in foreign exchange?’’ he asked.

Jaitly says the fuss over the payment to Mills was uncalled for since she personally arranged for a donation from a friend named Mohan Pandit. ‘‘We have no money and most of the lawyers appearing for us in the Commission are doing the work for free. I have known this family from Gujarat for years. They run an NGO and have been doing philanthopic work and wanted to help us with funds. Everything is on paper and through RBI clearance.’’

As for the work Mills did, he told Express the ‘‘problem’’ he faced was that he had no access to the original tapes. ‘‘All I got from Jaya Jaitly was 17 minutes of video recording copied on a compact disc.’’

While in Delhi, Mills gave the Commission a signed affidavit in which he graphically showed how in three places, the audio was interrupted, while the video recording appeared continuous.

His conclusion: ‘‘Until the original recordings are examined, who can say what the truth of the matter is?’’

He reiterated this when he spoke to this reporter. ‘‘It is very difficult to authenticate a copy. Only the Tehelka people and, perhaps, the Commission have access to the original tapes and only they can prove the corruption alleged or prove the innocence of the people facing the allegations. I spent a week in Delhi and this is the impression I came away with.’’

Milind Kapoor, the Indian videographic expert who gave evidence before the Venkatswami Commission, says the doubts raised over the tapes made it ‘‘very important for an international expert like Christopher Mills to give evidence.

It does not matter if he viewed only 17 minutes of film; if he noticed discrepancies, his views are important since he is acknowledged to be one of the best in the business.’’