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Fernandes asks Venkataswami Commission to let him appear as first witness

In a major move, Defence Minister George Fernandes on Wednesday asked the Venkataswami Commission, probing the allegations of corruption in defence deals, to let him appear as the first witness under the cross-examination notice, even as Tehelka news portal sought to be examined last.

Since the notice of cross-examination to Fernandes was in a category different from others, he should be examined first before any other witness, Raju Ramachandran, counsel appearing for the defence minister, told Justice K Venkataswami.

While all other witnesses have been served with cross-examination notice for their conduct being subject matter, Fernandes was issued the notice for his reputation.

However, Tehelka counsel Kavin Gulati asked the Commission to examine last his clients -- Tehelka.com Managing Director Tarun Tejpal and two reporters Anirudh Bahal and Mathew Samuel.

The counsel also presented their arguments regarding identification, ambit and scope of 'all aspects' referred in one of the Terms of Reference pertaining to making and publication of the allegations and the procedure to be adopted by the Commission to deal with the matter.

Representing the government, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said the aspects such as the manner in which the tapes were made, method used to do the sting operation, technical correctness and commissions made in the tapes would have bearing on the authenticity of the tapes.

Sorabjee also pleaded that the Commission should go ahead with all other ToR before dealing with the aspects of making and publication of the allegations.

The other counsel, including that of former Samata Party President Jaya Jaitley, Niloy Dutta said the Commission should also look into the ethics of using call girls to entrap defence officials among others issues while considering the motives behind such an expose.

While presenting his arguments, Gulati said since the ambit of the Commission only included the four-and-a-half hour tapes, which were in public domain.

The Commission should not consider the aspect of call girls being used in the sting operation, he said.

The counsel for R K Jain, R K Madhavan said if the news portal was aware of the alleged corruption in defence deals they should have approached either CVC or CBI instead of shooting a film clandestinely and blackmailing people.

Therefore, the Commission should not take the filming seriously and exonerate all the noticees, he said.

Dutta suggested that the Commission should call the witness in the sequence of the four-and-a-half hour tapes, which was agreed upon by the Commission's counsel Gopal Subramaniam also.

The Commission will pass an order on the matter on Wednesday, Justice Venkataswami said.

Complete coverage of the defence scandal

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