NEW DELHI, 5 January 2004 — The center has extended by another six months the term of the Justice Phukan Commission of Inquiry probing the defense scam exposed by the Tehekla portal in March 2001. The panel has completed one year. Justice K. Venkataswami, who was investigating the scam earlier, resigned in November 2002.
It is doubtful whether the commission will be able to complete the inquiry and submit its report before the Lok Sabha elections, expected in April/May.
When Justice Venkataswami resigned, the draft report relating to past defense transactions was almost ready. The commission had held 181 sittings, examined 50 witnesses and passed 720 interim orders; 961 pages of depositions regarding 15 past defense deals had been recorded.
Justice Phukan, who took over in January last, has since held 56 sittings and passed over 40 orders. The most important was the one referring the Tehelka tapes for forensic examination to determine whether “they are Hi8 camera originals or if they had been subjected to interpolations, doctoring or tampering or editing... “
The commission, thereby reversed the earlier orders passed by his predecessor, Justice Venkataswami, rejecting pleas from the center, former Samata Party president, Jaya Jaitly and others.
