Charges in JMM case are politically motivated -- Rao

Charges in JMM case are politically motivated -- Rao
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15: Former premier P V Narasimha Rao on Tuesday told a special court trying the multi-crore JMM MPs bribery case that the case filed against him was "politically motivated" and denied any monetary inducement to save his minority government in 1993.

When Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke asked Rao "why is this case against you?", the former prime minister said some witnesses had "falsely" deposed against him in the case because of "political motivation and political pressure".

CBI had charged Rao and ten others with bribing some MPs to buy their support against the July 28, 1993 no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha and as a sequel to the monetary transactions, the then minority Congress goverment led by him had survived the motion by 14 votes.

He said: "In all the trials of strength, (his) government won the vote confidently. My government survived solely on parliament's goodwill and its performance. There was no effort whatsoever to mobilise strength by any monetary inducement to MPs at anypoint of time."

The court after completing recording statement of Rao under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), in which an accused is given the final chance to rebutt the charges collected against him during recording of evidence, directed all other accused to appear before it on March 1 and 2, for further proceedings.