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The Delhi high court on Friday acquitted former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and his then Cabinet colleague Buta Singh in Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery case.
Pronouncing the judgment in a jam-packed court, Justice R S Sodhi reversed the September 29, 2000, trial court order convicting the duo in the case.
Allowing the appeals against the trial court order that convicted them of bribing four JMM MPs to get their support to the Congress government during July 1993 no-confidence motion, Justice Sodhi said the statement of the approver in the case was not sufficient evidence against them.
Rao and Singh were convicted by Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke for bribing Suraj Mandal, Shailendra Mahato, Simon Marandi and Shibu Soren.
The special court, in a subsequent order on October 11, 2000, had sentenced Rao and Singh to three years' rigorous imprisonment.
The special CBI court had convicted them on the basis of former MP Shailandra Mahatao's confessional statement after he became an approver in the case.
The CBI had said each of the four JMM MPs were paid Rs 5 million and the bribe money was deposited in the Punjab National Bank's Naoroji Nagar branch in New Delhi.
Rao and Singh appealed that the approver's confession without any corroborative evidence was not sufficient
The court also rejected the revision petition by the Rashtriya Mukti Morcha, the main complainant in the case, challenging acquittal of nine other accused in the case.
The court said there was no merit in the petition in the absence of any evidence against the persons acquitted.
In its September 29, 2000 judgement the trial court acquitted Union Minister of Agriculture Ajit Singh, former Union minister Satish Sharma, former Haryana and Karnataka chief ministers Bhajan Lal and Veerappa Moily, two former Karnataka ministers Ramalinga Reddy and M Thime Gowda, former MP V Rajeshwar Rao and two Bangalore-based liquor barons.
The RMM had claimed that there were enough circumstantial evidence to convict all of them.
The court said that approver Mahato "is an unreliable witness and there is no corroborative evidence to support his confessional statement".
The CBI and the defence had "agreed" during the argument that except Mahato's statement there was no other evidence in the case.
PTI
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