Last week, Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Manmohan Singh said at a joint press conference that to fight terrorism, Europol and CBI will cooperate to attack sources of money-laundering and of terrorism finance. Were they serious, or was it the usual hot air? Our PM might soon be tested.
Readers of this column will recall the Telgi case. The scam generated over Rs 33,000 crore of black money, a part of which could have also funded terrorists. During the probe, the police stumbled on a host of brand new foreign currencies possessed by those complicit in the scam.
Abdul Karim Telgi is the lynchpin of this nationwide scam. He is in fact a small cog in the powerful politico-criminal nexus behind the fraud. On December 8, 2003, this columnist wrote: "The Telgi scam is of such proportion, involving such a wide array of politicians and officials spread across the country, that the truth, when out, could demolish an entire political class."
On October 25, 2004, this columnist identified some leading politicians cutting across party lines who were named by the press for being involved in the scam on the basis of police leaks. Central leaders of both the Congress and the BJP could have become unwittingly complicit by accepting part of the Telgi loot as party funds. In this connection, Telgi's lawyer Abdul Rehman's meeting with then Union home minister L.K. Advani in his office was considered significant. Since people in high positions were involved, the prospect of the truth coming out appeared remote.
But last week, The Tribune carried a report that Telgi, as a victim of terminal disease, had said he wants to make a full video confession, giving names. The police, not surprisingly in the circumstances, are reportedly lukewarm to the offer. The Tribune claimed it had a copy of Telgi's deposition. Had the reporter received the information on the understanding it would not be authenticated, things might have been different. Now, after claiming it has a copy of the deposition, The Tribune is left with no choice but to make it public in order to protect its professional integrity. If the information is not published, critics could claim that the report was motivated. They could claim The Tribune was unwittingly serving the interests of sources seeking to pressurise or blackmail political leaders.
One must wait to see what The Tribune does with its information. And if it is published, one must see what follow-up action our PM takes.
(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)
