NEW DELHI: For the first time ever, the government has booked a criminal case against journalists associated with a sting operation. The case is on the 2005 cash-for-questions sting, which showed 11 MPs accepting money for putting up questions in Parliament.
The expose was endorsed by Parliament which expelled the 11 MPs as well as by the Supreme Court which upheld their expulsion. No criminal case has been lodged against the MPs, while the journalists who brought out a corrupt practice have been accused of abetting corruption under Section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The FIR was registered in Parliament Street police station on June 9, two years after the sting operation. It comes against the backdrop of the government’s much talked-about efforts to enact a broadcast law regulating, among other things, sting operations, which have become an increasing menace for public figures.
Acting on the recommendation of the committee on ethics, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, the crime branch of Delhi Police lodged the FIR. The police have also asked for the CD of the sting. Although the sting covered 11 MPs, the FIR is confined to the transaction with BJP MP Chhatrapal Singh Lodha, the only Rajya Sabha member to have been caught taking money for raising questions in Parliament at the behest of a fictitious business association.
This is because the entire case hinges on one tenuous difference between the Lok Sabha committee’s report that led to the expulsion of 10 MPs and the Rajya Sabha committee report that led to Lodha’s expulsion. While both committees recommended the "maximum punishment" against erring MPs, the Rajya Sabha committee also had reservations about sting operations and said that "perhaps the time has come for Parliament to consider the broad question of regulating such undercover operations."
Headed by Congress MP Karan Singh, the Rajya Sabha committee went on to suggest proceedings against all those "who have been instrumental in arranging the meetings of undercover reporters with MPs and acted as conduits in murky deals." This line, which is also quoted in the FIR, has been the trigger for the police to accuse the undercover reporters and other journalists associated with the sting of committing the offence of abetment of corruption.
"The authorities of Cobrapost and private TV channel Aaj Tak have committed an offence of abetment as defined under Section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 by carrying out Operation Duryodhan and telecasting the same," the FIR said.
Aniruddha Bahal, who masterminded the sting, said, "Considering the manner in which Congress leaders came out in our support when we did a sting during the NDA rule on defence deals, it is intriguing that the UPA government has now turned so hostile towards undercover reporters."
The police have already issued a notice to Bahal to surrender the original video cassettes related to Lodha’s expose.
