SHIMLA: The corruption case slapped on former chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh weakened further as two high-profile prosecution witnesses in the open court denied that they had made any testimony before the investigating agency about having bribed their way to obtain clearances for industrial projects.
Appearing before the court of special judge B L Soni, retired octogenarian prosecution witness Kapil Mohan, owner of Mohan Meakin Limited, denied that any illegal money was paid to avert installation of an effluent treatment plant at his Solan brewery. Mohan said that no investigating officer had visited him and recorded his testimony, which the prosecution was relying upon in the case.
Special public prosecutor Jiwan Lal pointed out that the Solan brewery had been asked to install a treatment plant in 1983 and a notice had been served in 1989 by the state pollution control board that the water and electricity connection would be severed unless it was done so at the earliest. The prosecution had produced Mohan as a witness holding that he had authorized an employee, H N Handa, to bribe the authorities for avoiding an investment of about Rs 6 crore involved in installing the treatment plant. However, the key witness in the case denied any such thing had ever happened.
The other witness who has turned hostile is P C Jain, an employee of Gujarat Ambuja Cement. The prosecution claimed he had handed over Rs 3 lakh to Virbhadra Singh at Himachal Bhawan in presence of Ambuja Cement chairman Suresh Neotia in 1989 for obtaining clearance for setting up a cement plant in the state. Another Rs 2 lakh were given to Pratibha Singh, the prosecution claimed in a testimony attributed to have been recorded at Jain's residence by the investigating team.
However, in the court Jain denied he had recorded any statement before the investigating team, but on cross-examination the witness accepted that a police team had visited him at his residence, who were offered tea. Implicating the former chief minister, the prosecution stated in court that "as per procedure prescribed, approval of the cement plant was to be accorded by the sub-committee of four ministers but the accused accorded approval without obtaining consent of two ministers".
On Friday, prime witness Vijay Singh Mankotia had partially turned hostile when he caused doubts to arise about authenticity of the voice in the two-decade-old recorded telephonic conversation. Before the judge adjourned the hearing and posted the case for December 1, the prosecution also recorded the statements of two police officials, Daljeet Thakur, then SP vigilance bureau, and head constable Jagdeep Mokat, who were involved with the investigation of the case, on Saturday.
Of the total 61 witnesses, 23 have testified in court and the prosecution had decided not to summon another 10 in the case. The rest are still to present themselves before the judge. After the prosecution had filed a chargesheet before the trial court in October 2010, the special judge had framed charges in the case on June 25, 2012.
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