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Tehelka panel directive to Centre

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI NOV. 22. The Justice Venkataswami Commission today directed the Centre to spell out its stand on the issue of "financial aspect" in the enquiry relating to the Tehelka portal's exposure and inform the stage of investigation against the portal and others.

Justice Venkataswami, while granting time till November 26 to the Centre to file its affidavit, deferred till then his orders on the portal's plea to recall Government witnesses for deposition on financial aspects before considering any other submission.

In his order, he recalled an affidavit filed by the Centre in August last, accusing the portal of being responsible for the crash in the share market after March last and pleading for inclusion of this aspect in the probe.

The Centre had then said that as a result of the operations (allegedly manipulated after the Tehelka expose), investors' confidence in the capital market had shattered and benefits, if any, accruing from "Operations West End", had been more than outweighed by the loss inflicted on the economy and social fabric. Alleging that the motives behind Tehelka were not reflection of an honest journalistic endeavour, it had wanted the commission to probe into that aspect also.

The commission said that right from the beginning, the Centre had been informing the panel that the investigations on the "financial aspect" and related assessment proceedings were going on. And it was under the impression that the investigation had nexus with the "financial aspect" and, therefore, thought that completion of investigation was necessary. But the Centre now stated that the "financial aspect" could proceed independently without waiting for completion of the investigation. Hence, the Centre should take a definite stand on the use of materials gathered so far and to be gathered hereafter. The Centre was also asked to indicate the time likely to be taken by the investigating team for completing the probe.

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