Lawyer and co-chairman of the joint draft committee on the Lokpal Bill, Shanti Bhushan, has urged Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to make public the report prepared by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh, on the controversial CD containing his purported conversation with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh and former SP leader Amar Singh.
The Chandigarh CFSL report said the CD was a “cut-and-paste” job, contradicting the Delhi lab report that said it was genuine.
In a letter to Mr. Chidambaram on Sunday, Mr. Bhushan said it was necessary to make public the Chandigarh CFSL report to remove the perception — which he said he did not share — that “perhaps an effort might be on to try to pressurise the Chandigarh CFSL to change its report and [that] this is the reason for keeping the report under wraps for so long.”
Mr. Bhushan added: “The Director of the CFSL, Delhi, was an ad hoc appointee, and to get confirmed, he would have to be in the good books of those in the Appointments Committee, of which the Home Minister is a member. Since I know that the CD is a fabricated one, he appears to have given this totally incorrect report to ingratiate himself to them. The people of India may easily guess as to which persons are behind this smear campaign against civil society members of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee.”
Mr. Bhushan, in an earlier letter to Mr. Chidambaram, sought copies of both the CFSL reports as well as the statements of Mr. Mulayam Singh and Mr. Amar Singh, if recorded.
He said that in reply to his request, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) said that he had been directed to inform him that at the initial stage of investigation, divulging any information may hamper the probe.
Mr. Bhushan said it was strange that while the report of the Delhi CFSL, “signed by four experts,” was doing the rounds in the media, the Chandigarh report was being kept in a “double-key safe.”
