It was in early 1991 that the first case involving foreign funding of militant groups in Kashmir came to light. But little has been heard about the militants whose confessions had led to the seizure of diaries and notebooks listing the recipients of illegal money from London. In the wake of people's horror over the disclosures of bribes paid to top politicians and bureaucrats, the motive of those who sent the money and those who received it got pushed into the back-ground.
One Ishfaque Hussain Lone of Srinagar, known as "deputy chief of intelligence" of the Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant group in Kashmir, was trapped in Delhi on March 25, 1991, after police were tipped off. Twenty-three bank drafts drawn in favor of 22 persons - payable at Jammu and Kashmir bank branches - and cash amounting to Rs. 1.6 million (about $46,000) was recovered from him. The startling information was that he was allegedly the conduit for money to various militant organizations. Three letters found with him revealed plans to increase militancy in Kashmir.
Two days later, on March 27, one Shahbuddin Ghauri, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, at one time parading as a human rights activist, was arrested. He would collect money and give to Ishfaque Hussain for distribution among militants.
Investigations showed that money was collected from Shambhu Dayal Sharma, a dealer in Bombay, who received large amounts through the hawala (illegal money laundering) channels. The person in London who transmitted money was identified as Dr. Mohammed Ayub. He was patron of the Islamic Jamaat-i-Tulba (IJT) when he was living in Shopian, near Srinagar, some years ago.
Sharma's arrest led to the custody of four more persons: Moolchand Sampatraj Shah, Mohammed Shahid, Rais Anwar and Nand Kishore. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has by that time taken charge of the case, opposed the bail of all the five. Yet the court let them off. The government then detained them under the Terrorist and Distruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). They are the ones who blurted out the information which led to the raids on the premises of Surinder Jain, his cousin and his manager, Jamender Jain. Two diaries and two notebooks were seized from one place. Those documents have turned out to be most revealing.
The entries in the diaries relate to the accounts maintained in the regular course of business. And the accounts who that between April 1988 and March 191, nearly Rs. 500 million (about $14 million) were brought by the front-men of militants to Indian through hawala channels and paid to various important people - as many as 151, including ministers and leaders of political parties.
Probably, it was too hot a brick to hold. The government closed the investigation in March 1992 after filing a charge sheet against Ishfaque Hussain Lone and Shahbuddin Ghauri. The others were shown as absconders. There was no mention of diaries and notebooks in the charge sheet.
Ram Jethmalani, a lawyer and a member of the Rajya Sabha or upper house of Parliament, wrote to the Prime Minister on Aug. 28, 1993, and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh on Aug. 30, drawing their attention to the financing of militants in Kashmir and urging the two to disclose what it was all about. He did not receive any reply from either of them. Four days later, he held a press conference in Delhi where he demanded a thorough probe. The government still did not react. However, on Oct. 4, 1993, a writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court, thanks to the relentless pressure by two journalists.
After four years of wrangling in the Supreme Court, some case have been filed and those, too, because the three-judge bench took the CBI to task many a time. One typical remark made by Justice S.P. Barucha was: "The way the agency has functioned in the matter does not match with the facts of the case. If there is any doubt in anybody's mind then let it be clear that I am myself left with a feeling that a lot more should have been done in the matter." It is obvious that if left to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, he would have deferred the whole matter till after the polls. But the bench really pushed the CBI which, in turn, reportedly told the Prime Minister Officer that it could not delay the filling of cases any further. Congress Party spokesman V.N. Gadgil has admitted that the government was "forced." Who should be chargesheeted first was Rao's own decision and it is he who selected the three ministers and seven politicians.
Everyone is surprised how the name of V.C. Shukla came to be included because he is among the most loyal to Rao. This was probably done to counter the charge that Rao had not initiated action against his own men. While implementing the Kamaraj plan for cleansing politics in 1962, Jawaharlal Nehru changed most Cabinet ministers and chief ministers. He also dropped his favorite, Lal Bahadur Shastri, to give the impression that he was making no distinction. It is clear that those who passed on money to the Indian politicians were financing militants in Kashmir as well. This suggests some sort of link. It provides the nation with sufficient evidence that the funding of militants and of the leading politicians was from the same source. This has serious ramifications. The very thought is disturbing. Since all those who made confessions are behind bars under TADA, any further information is not possible.
What did the confessions say? which was the hand that fed militants and politicians at the same time? Why did government try to hush up the whole thing? The Solicitor General has admitted that "unfortunately" there was a gap in the investigations between June 1991 and February 1993. Those and many other questions are valid. The government must answer them. The nation is extremely perturbed that its elected representatives have been found receiving illegal money from abroad. Still more disturbing is the fact that the money meant for militants was reaching politicians. Could there be a nexus between the two? It is the militants' connection that has made foreign money coming to politician tainted. Otherwise, they have been accepting funds from foreign sources for a long time. The flow increases before the elections. The CBI has in the past held an inquiry into the "nature and extent of foreign money received." It has found that money countries provide funds to political parties through "overt and covert" channels.
The Home Ministry, too, examined the report. Its conclusion was that "several countries have been providing financial assistance for diverse activities." What was particularly noticed was that financial assistance from Russian and American sources has been more "sustained and much larger as compared to such assistance from other countries." Some people fear that the allegations against top politicians might weaken the people's faith in the system. In fact, the effect is the opposite. There is an added confidence in the system which, although reeking with corruption, has come to acquire a mechanism which public-spirited persons, journalists and others can activate to cleanse the stable.
From Wikipedia
"Abdul Karim Telgi, who also operated with considerable political connivance. However, unlike in the Mundhra case, the government response in appointing an honest and competent judge, and also the judicial investigation (24 days of public hearings) has been far from transparent.[5] This lack of transparency has also been commented upon in the public investigation of the Bofors Scandal, one of India's largest scandals, which involved Feroze Gandhi's son Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister at the time.[7]"
