Friday, Jan 10, 2003
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Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram
By Our Staff Reporter
The other accused in the case are Surya TV reporter, Anil Nambiar, Shobhana George, MLA, her private secretary, Anil. P. Sreerangam and Thaniniram reporter, R. Jayachandran. The Crime Branch case is that the accused had conspired and forged an intelligence letter purportedly written by the DGP (Intelligence) to the private secretary of the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, stating that the Fisheries Minister, K. V. Thomas, was involved in a Rs-336 crore hawala transaction (currently under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate) during the 1999-2000 period. The Crime Branch has concluded that forcing the ouster of Prof. K. V. Thomas from the State Cabinet and destabilising the Government for the advantage of the accused were the apparent motives behind the crime. A senior Crime Branch official claimed that the agency had stumbled across ample evidence pointing to Chandramohan's involvement in the conspiracy. The official said the document was authored on Chandramohan's computer at a house near Poojappura on June 24. "We have independent witnesses who have stated that Shobhana George, MLA, Chandramohan, R. Jayachandran and one Praveen were among those present at the house on June 24. The Central Processing Unit (CPU) of Chandramohan's computer was taken to the house for the purpose of forging the letter. The letter was delivered to the Surya TV office the same evening by Praveen,'' he said. The Crime Branch had earlier issued a look-out notice for the arrest of Praveen who, the agency said, was a close associate of Jayachandran. Ms. Bindu, who was manning the Surya TV reception office on June 24 evening had identified Praveen as the courier of the letter, the agency said. The official said on June 28, two days after the Crime Branch registered a case in connection with the forgery, Chandramohan had hired a computer expert to delete a large number of documents on his computer. "The deletion was done through the process of overwriting, deliberately making it difficult for anyone to retrieve the deleted documents. The dates on the computer were also seen changed. Moreover, all the documents found on his computer were seen in the same 12 point Times New Roman Font setting with Left alignment used for making the forged document,'' he said. The official said that during questioning, a close relative of Chandramohan had inadvertently told the investigators that the CPU of Chandramohan's computer was taken somewhere in his car on June 24. When questioned, Chandramohan said he had taken it to the office of a Malayalam newspaper where he was employed as a reporter for a short period. However, it was later confirmed that the CPU was at the newspaper office the same day only for less than half-an-hour, the official said. The Crime Branch is also learned to have retrieved "portions of certain documents having relevance to the case'' from Chandramohan's computer using a special `un-delete' software. "What has been retrieved will form part of the evidence we furnish in the court. Statements of independent witnesses taken under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act and 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code will form part of the court evidence,'' the official said. He said the conspirators had used Microsoft cut-and-paste software to emboss a police headquarters `inward' seal on the forged document to make it appear genuine. However, inward seals are used only on documents received at the PHQ and not on ones meant for despatch. The official said that the Crime Branch had taken the written statement of Chandramohan. "We have written what he has said. But we are pointing out the contradictions and discrepancies in our report to the court,'' the official said. The Crime Branch is now all set to chargesheet the case. Efforts are also on to arrest Praveen who is suspected of having delivered the document to the Surya TV office.
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