Plea to summon Kesri as accused in JMM bribe case

The judge ruled that arguments on the petition, moved by Dr Surat Singh, counsel for accused Anadi Sharan Das and Abhay Pratap Singh, would take place after the cross-examination of Mahato by counsel for all the 20 accused.

Bharihoke had ealier rejected a bunch of similar petitions moved after he allowed Mahato to turn approver in the light of his confessional statement in which he made the first reference to Kesri in connection with the case.The petitions seeking summoning of Abha Mahato, wife of Shailendra Mahato, as accused under Section 319 CrPC was moved by counsel for Narasimha Rao and V Rajeshwara Rao, an accused.

The petitions stated that since Mahato had admitted that he had deposited Rs 39.8 lakh, representing part of the Rs 50 lakh he received as bribe for voting against the July 28, 1993, no-confidence motion against the Rao Government, in a joint bank account with his wife Abha, she was a beneficiary of the bribe and part of the conspiracy to save the Rao government through unlawful means.

Disposing of three other petitions of Rao, the judge directed the CBI to furnish to all the accused copies of statements recorded by the bureau on various days during the interrogation of Mahato. Refusing to make available a complaint filed by Abha with NHRC alleging harassment of her family by CBI, the judge said since she was not an accused, the complaint was irrelevant to the case.

I got death threats’

Shailendra Mahato, the key state approver in the multi-crore JMM MPs bribery case today told a Delhi court that he had received death threats from Congress quarters if confessed about the scandal.

“You will be killed if you confessed about the bribery scandal and turned an approver, were the threats from the Congress quarters,” Mahato said to a question by R K Anand, counsel for Rao during the trial proceedings here.