by Tapas Chakraborty
(The Telegraph, 22 June 2009)
Lucknow, June 21: Uttar Pradesh police are preparing to file a chargesheet against Varun Gandhi after two forensic reports confirmed independently that the voice in a hate-speech CD is his, sources said.
The Mayavati government had detained Varun, now a BJP member of Parliament, under the National Security Act for the anti-Muslim speech during his campaign in Pilibhit. But the Supreme Court gave him bail and then squashed the use of the NSA against him. Varun, 29, claims the CD was doctored.
Varun, however, was also booked in criminal cases under Election Commission orders for allegedly promoting enmity between religious groups, punishable by up to three years in jail. The charge-sheets will be filed in connection with these six cases, lodged in various Pilibhit police stations.
Pilibhit district magistrate Ajay Chauhan confirmed that two preliminary reports had arrived from the forensic science laboratories in Chandigarh and Hyderabad. “I have not seen the reports but I have been told by the police that they confirm that the voice in the CD was Varun’s,” he said.
A police source said the investigating officer, Mani Ram Rao, would travel to Chandigarh to get a detailed report. “After the detailed report is received, a charge-sheet along with the statements of forensic experts will be placed before the local court,” the source said.
In Lucknow, Varun’s lawyer Prashant Singh Atal said: “The charge-sheet is not expected to alter the status of Varun who is on bail.”
Varun’s mother and BJP MP Maneka Gandhi said in New Delhi that the forensic reports gave a “one-sided version” and claimed the “entire tape is doctored”.
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