Fearing the worst, website Tehelka exhibited the equipment it used for Operation Westend before submitting them to the Phukan Commission.Cameras and recording equipment hidden in a briefcase, satchel and a tie used in the sting operation on the Army and the Government two-and-a-half years ago, were displayed by Tarun Tejpal and his team today.‘‘Everyone on the Phukan Commission is an accused party and we opted out of it after deposing before the Venkatswami Commission. We fear the recording equipment could be misused, rendering our stand infructous,’’ he said.Tehelka has been asked to give up the equipment for inquiry, to be copied first at the Indira Gandhi Open University — which Tejpal said did not have a forensic studio to conduct the examination.He displayed four types of recording cameras, one of which was concealed inside a suitcase with apertures the size of a pinhole. The website also used cameras hidden in a ladies’ handbag and a satchel, both of which could be controlled with a vibrating lever concealed in the bags.‘‘We are filled with apprehensions. If anything happens to the equipment, we will be left with nothing to buttress our claims,’’ Tejpal said clarifying this did not imply that Tehelka was casting aspersions on the judge.After the tapes were sent for forensic examination in London, the expert examining them had sent the Commission a note asking for the recording equipment to be shown to him as he had some doubts, Tejpal said. ‘‘We do not know whether they will be doctored and our last plea was to make a copy of the equipment which they have decreed will be done at IGNOU,’’ he said.
