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The wait of a condemned general

Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi

He may be under a cloud. But Major General P S K Chaudhary still looks you straight in the eye.

On Thursday afternoon, Gen Chaudhary looked restless as he waited outside the office of the Justice Venkataswami Commission at New Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan. Clearly, some frustration was brewing inside.

The general had decided to break his silence of the last many months after the expose by a newspaper about tehelka.com using prostitutes in its sting operation to reveal corruption in defence purchases.

Gen Chaudhary, who was suspended as additional director general (weapons and equipment) after the scandal first broke and is expecting to face a court-martial, told rediff.com: "We are not shocked or surprised [about the use of prostitutes]. We knew of it because we were told about it when the court of inquiry was on."

Gen Chaudhary had come without a lawyer. He has instructed his lawyer, Suman Kapur, not to attend the commission's hearing. Instead, to save money, he attends the commission's sittings religiously and sends Kapur the brief.

The general is the only one of all the persons who received 8B notices from the commission to have reviewed 101 of the 105 cassettes submitted to the commission by the web site.

Not only has he jotted down minute details from the cassettes, he is also maintaining records of the viewings.

He has a complete record of the unedited transcripts concerning him and alleges that the edited transcripts were twisted to suit Tehelka's purpose. Slowly but surely he is building up his defence.

Gen Chaudhary is the only person accused of corruption by tehelka.com to admit to his mistake publicly. He has confessed to having taken Rs 100,000 from Tehelka's Samuel Mathew and also unknowingly accepting a gift packet containing a gold chain.

The general said he confessed in public with his wife Mala's support so that he could 'sleep peacefully'.

"I confessed because I was very much disturbed by press reports that Indian armymen are doing all these things and buying substandard equipment," he said.

"I could not stand that allegation. This is just not true. We have not played with the lives of the soldiers on the border," he added.

The general pointed out that without trust in his own weapons no soldier could fight.

"I wanted to correct this wrong impression spread in the media, so I confessed to say that though I took money, I never ever favoured anyone or even thought about favouring anyone," he said.

Chaudhary was reprimanded by some of his relatives for confessing. But he has no regrets.

Like most of Tehelka's victims, he insists that the operation was not a sting, it was entrapment.

"It was planned to deceive and lure people by playing them against each other," he said.

But why did he accept the money? "It was a moment of weakness. I committed a mistake," he admitted.

He, however, insists that he had never asked for a bribe.

"I have the unedited version of the tapes with me. Show me anywhere... just a line... to show that we asked for bribes. I have not taken bribes. I told the tehelka.com people that I would be shifting from the job within 3-4 months. If I wanted money, why would I say this?"

Gen Chaudhary was once one of the most trusted men in the country's defence set-up.

He was considered the blue-eyed boy of former army chief General V P Malik, and had handled contracts worth up to Rs 30 billion.

Now he realises the importance of that trust.

"The worst happened to me when the story broke. Everything has collapsed since," he said.

But his wife and two beautiful daughters are standing by him. His daughters even told him that they would continue to support General Chaudhary even if he lost his job.

Yes, they are disturbed that their father accepted money, but they believe that was an aberration. "They know me. They know I would never trade national interest," he said.

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