The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday told a court in Delhi that it has "lots of evidence" against godman Chandraswami, alias Nemi Chand Jain, in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The CBI's statement was made before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravinder Dudeja, who rejected Chandraswami's plea for permission to travel abroad after he went through a box full of documents produced by the agency in his chamber.
The court's rejection came during hearing in a case in which he has been charged with violating the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973.
Chief Investigating Officer B N Mishra of the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency, which is probing the assassination case, was in the court along with the CBI's counsel, Mohammed Shakeel.
Mishra argued that if allowed to go abroad, Chandraswami would not return and would tamper with the evidence in some of the cases pending against him. "The evidence against him lies abroad, Your Honour," Mishra said.
Mishra urged the court to see the evidence in-camera to ensure their confidentiality, following which the magistrate directed its production in his chamber.
The Enforcement Directorate, pursuing the FERA case, also opposed the 56-year-old's plea.
Chandraswami's counsel K K Mannan told the court that his client was being victimised and charged the CBI with making frivolous allegations.
Mannan also said that the ED had not objected to a similar plea by Chandraswami in 1998. "My client wants to go to USA, UK and Mauritius for two months and will be back to answer any question. He has been investigated before and nothing was found against him," he argued.
Mannan told rediff.com that his client would either move the sessions court or the Delhi high court. "This court had no jurisdiction over the matter as the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case was heard by TADA court in Chennai. We are going in for appeal against the order."
Chandraswami was recently acquitted in the St Kitts case, in which he was said to have played a role in forging documents to show that former prime minister V P Singh was the beneficiary of a bank account in his son Ajeya's name in the Caribbean island.
He had earlier been discharged in the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case.
With Inputs from Onkar Singh
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