Tehelka tapes genuine, says commission

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, OCT. 12. The Venkataswami Commission today rejected the plea of the former president of Samata Party, Ms. Jaya Jaitly, and others seeking expert opinion on the authenticity of the tapes released by the Tehelka portal.

In its order, the Commission held that the unedited tapes in its possession ``are camera originals'' and no prima facie case had been made out about doctoring and tampering of the tapes and it was inappropriate at this juncture to refer them to a panel of experts.

The Commission virtually accepted the statement of the Tehelka witness to the effect that having regard to the tapes used by the portal, namely, HI8 with AFM sound track, there was absolutely no possibility of tampering or interpolation. ``The clinching evidence of Mr. Pradeep Krishen and Mr. Uma Shankar, admittedly experts in their respective fields and examined by Tehelka.com, have neither been seriously doubted nor even any attempt has been made to discredit the same,'' the Commission said.

The Commission agreed with their evidence that ``it is not possible to add or remove any piece of sound from the camera original without at the same time adding or removing the corresponding picture''. The contention of the portal's senior counsel that no motive had been made out nor even suggested for the purpose of doctoring the tapes seemed to be well-founded, the Commission observed.

Referring to the Centre's stand that ``the Commission should clear the clouds of uncertainty on the genuineness of the tapes at the earliest'', the Commission said ``this slight but significant change in the stand of the Union of India is rather curious, especially considering that it had proceeded with inquiries of the Defence personnel and others based on these very tapes''.

Mr. Justice Venkataswami also noted that none of the noticees had disputed seriously their oral participation as well as physical appearance in the tapes though in certain instances certain conversations were disputed. This, by itself, would not be sufficient to throw doubts on the genuineness of the tapes. He said mere possibility of the tapes not being genuine without any prima facie evidence to support it would not be a sufficient ground for doubting their veracity.

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