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New CBI chief may give Jaya tough time

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

With R K Raghavan's posting as the Central Bureau of Investigation director, ex-CBI chief Joginder Singh's charge against a 'former Union minister from Tamil Nadu' should die a natural death. So should it silence criticism on the agency's handling of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Raghavan was the chief of the Tamil Nadu Vigilance and Anti-Corruption wing when it filed the now-controversial case against former chief minister Jayalalitha for accepting $ 300,000, allegedly from unknown foreign sources.

"He (Raghavan) knows the truth of it, and also the seriousness of Joginder Singh's charge," says an informed source.

Singh's allegation had come in his recently published book Inside CBI. Hinting at political vendetta, he claimed that a former Union minister from Tamil Nadu pressured him to file a first information report against Jayalalitha in the `dollar-transfer case'.

Tamil Maanila Congress leader S R Balasubramanian, who as the minister of state for personnel, was handling Singh's department was quick to retort to the charge.

"Raghavan is a no-nonsense officer who is known for his honesty and integrity. I don't think the political adversaries of Jayalalitha could have influenced him to file the case in the first place, before it was forwarded to the CBI for follow-up action at their end," says the source.

The case requires CBI's handling, as it may involve investigation in foreign countries. "Raghavan knew for sure that the dollars did come into Jayalalitha's account. It's there in her bank records, and even Jayalalitha has not denied it. She has only denied any knowledge of the source while declaring it under the income-tax amnesty scheme. Now, it's for the CBI to find out if it had come through any of the exempted heads under the amnesty scheme, and Raghavan can be expected to do a honest job of it," he adds.

Incidentally, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is said to have held back the decision on a proposal from the Centre notifying the Tamil Nadu Special Courts null and void under Section 4(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The prime minister and his legal advisors, it's said, feel that the proposal, reportedly mooted by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Minister of State for Personnel Kadambur R Janarthanam, may have to wait until the Supreme Court disposes of the Centre's plea in this regard.

Reverting to Raghavan, the source referred to the reopened probe into the Rajiv Gandhi case. Raghavan as the state chief for VIP security during the 1991 election was there at Sriperumbudur when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21. The Verma Commission that went into the security lapses later indicted him for not ensuring a fool- proof security.

With the Vajpayee government reopening the investigations into the 'conspiracy angle' through the appointment of a multi-disciplinary monitoring agency, the CBI has once again come into the picture. According to the decision, the CBI will be the nodal agency for the probe, with participation from other Central intelligence agencies.

For its part, the CBI has already named a joint director to head the investigation team. "Now with Raghavan at the helm, the CBI can go through the earlier probe by its Special Investigation Team with a tooth-comb, and seek answers that might have been over-looked earlier. As the man on the spot, he would deem it a duty to expose the 'ultimate conspiracy', if any."

In this context, the source also said that the MDMA was not under 'time-pressure' or 'public gaze' as the SIT was earlier. "The SIT was free to draw on the expertise of such organisations as the Research and Analysis Wing and the Intelligence Bureau. But it's Raghavan's long stint in the latter that may make the MDMA's work smoother."

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