New Delhi:
Did Shanti Bhushan state in a phone call that a judge could be bribed for four crores? Different forensic labs offer contradicting findings based on a CD that contains that phone conversation.
Shanti Bhushan, who has served as Law Minister earlier, has been nominated the co-chairman of a new committee that's working on an anti-corruption law.
A CD was sent last week to media organizations that allegedly has Mr Bhushan in conversation with Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh. The voice that resembles Mr Bhushan's says his son can handle fixing a judge for four crores.
Mr Bhushan and his son, Prashant, have said that the CD is doctored - that while the voice does seem to Mr Bhushan's, the narrative has been pieced together from different conversations. The Bhushans say a lab in America and Truth Labs in Hyderabad have both confirmed this. Dr KPC Gandhi, who heads Truth Labs, stood by this today. According to his lab's findings, " There are discontinuities, breaks in recording, indicating a fabricated conversation....substantial part of the recordings are electronically copied to build up and fabricate." Crucially, the Truth Lab report also says that there's an absence of electronic noise before the "four crores" is referred to - indicating that these words may have been spliced in.
However, the CSFL lab- a government forensic lab - has stated otherwise. In a report submitted to the Delhi Police today, the lab says that "the recorded conversation is in contextual continuity" and does not seem to have been tampered with. However, the lab says that for conclusive evidence, it would like to match actual voice samples of the people involved with those heard on the CD, along with the entire conversation rather than the roughly two-minute excerpt sent for review.
Mr Bhushan was selected to head the Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee by Anna Hazare, the civil activist who has become the face of what's known as the India Against Corruption movement. Mr Hazare's hunger strike captured the imagination and support of middle class India earlier this month. The might of that people's revolution forced the government to concede that the new Lokpal Bill would be drafted by civil society representatives as well as ministers. Mr Bhushan co-chairs that panel along with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.