NEW DELHI, May 10: B R Lal, a former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Joint Director, who was the chief investigator in the Jain-hawala case until July 1995, has alleged that he was taken off the probe for advocating a hard line and calling for ``complete investigations'' against former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and other Union Ministers.

Responding to adverse remarks made in his Annual Confidential Report, Lal has sent a batch of letters he wrote to the CBI top brass to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Lal, who is at present director in the Bureau of Police Research and Development, sent these letters to former CBI Director Vijaya Rama Rao and former Special Director N N Singh. He has also sent copies to the Department of Personnel. Sources in both the DoP and MHA confirmed they had received the letters last month.

The letters reveal that soon after he was transferred out of the hawala team, Lal sent a strongly-worded missive to Vijaya Rama Rao in which he accused the Director of having a ``Rao fixation'' and of shielding the ``big fish'' involved in the hawala scam. He also complained that the CBI was being ``selective'' and ``discriminatory'' while handling the Jain-hawala case and this amounted to what he described as a ``betrayal of the nation.'' In the 12-page letter, dated October 1, 1995, Lal wrote that he had demanded ``complete investigation'' against all politicians and bureaucrats named in S K Jain's diary. And that he had also called for the scrutiny of assets of all the accused so that cases of disproportionate assets could be registered against them.

The letter states that he had asked for then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao as well as former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to be brought under the ambit of the probe. Though Rajiv Gandhi was no longer alive, Lal had asked for his assets to be scrutinised.

Lal claimed that a wider probe was needed since S K Jain's diary had ``no evidential value'' and that the CBI would not be able to clinch the case on the basis of the document alone.

According to the letter, Lal had initiated a scrutiny of power projects like Kawas, Uri and Dulhasti, for which S K Jain had allegedly given kickbacks to politicians and a quid pro quo had been established by the CBI. It was his belief that for these and other projects like the Chamera power project in Himachal Pradesh, the country was paying much more than the world average. Keeping in view the need for such extended investigation, he had already called for the files of the power projects and had identified experts who could help the CBI scrutinise the contracts. However, in July 1995, he was transferred to the CBI's Northern zone.

A year later, he suddenly received orders that he was being reverted to his cadre. It was at the intervention of the MHA that his reversion had been stopped and he was posted to the BPR&D.

Lal claims he has been transferred 23 times in 12 years and each time for taking a ``principled stand'' on an important issue. He alleged that he had faced pressure in the LOC scandal of Assam which he was also investigating. In the second letter dated February 22, 1996, also written to Vijaya Rama Rao, Lal has denied former Minister of State for Personnel Margaret Alva's claims in Parliament that the transfers of CBI officers like him had no connection with the Jain-hawala case. Lal says he was taken off the case for advocating a hard line and asking for ``complete investigations'' against former prime ministers and Union ministers.

Along with these two letters, Lal has enclosed the reply dated July 26, 1996, which Vijaya Rama Rao had sent him. In it, the CBI Director had asserted that the allegations were ``untenable'' and ``devoid of truth'' and that it would be a waste of time for him to join issue on every point raised. The remarks of N N Singh, CBI's former Special Director to the allegations also form part of Vijaya Rama Rao's reply. Singh gave a para-wise reply to Lal, saying his complaints were not borne out by the official records of the CBI.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.