Purulia probe had almost come to a standstill @ The Times of India

Purulia probe had almost come to a standstill

28 Apr 2011, 1421 hrs IST, TIMES NOW

JK Dutt, the former Deputy Director of CBI, has reacted to the TIMES NOW expose on the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, saying that Peter Bleach, a British citizen, who served a sentence for his role in the arms drop, did not have the opportunity to make a statement before the judge. TIMES NOW: You were seen at the Mumbai airport, Sahara Airport immediately after Peter Bleach and his crew were caught there. At that point the case was with CID West Bengal, what was CBI doing there? JK DUTT: I think you are refering to the Purulia arms drop case. The case had been registered by the CID of West Bengal at that time and the Director CBI had asked me to proceed to Mumbai just to oversee the investigations that were taking place over there, because this case was expected to be handed over to the CBI. And we wanted to make sure that was nothing was missed out in the initial stages. So only to make sure that CID did a comprehensive job and no line of investigation or evidence was missed out at that stage, so that is why I was in Mumbai. TIMES NOW: Peter Bleach during the investigation gave a written statement that ran into pages, more than 30 pages in all. Why was it not part of the Chargesheet, when CBI filed it? JK DUTT: When an accused person is examined, he can be examined at different times to help the investigation progess further. In this particular case, between Peter Bleach's apprehension in Mumbai and he was taken to Kolkata, produced in a court in Purulia and brought back and taken into custody, during that period he had given about 6 statements. These statements were studied very seriously by investigating officers in the CBI because the case by then had been handed over to the organization. We found that there were some very important leads that could only be done by coordinating certain facts. From one of the information that he has revealed in his statement, when we worked on that it was almost like the investigation had come to a stand still. Apart from that we sent Letter Rogatories to Latvia and UK in connection with Peter Bleach. But beyond that we still didn't know who the other people involved in the case were. Peter Bleach's statement helped us with our investigation and we were able to get Satyanarayan Gouda who was an Anandmargi. And the investigation then from Kolkata and Purulia had moved to B'lore where he had bought his passport. So these statements are recorded and if the statements of the accused are to be produced in court, then they will be. He made these statements to an investigating officer, it is not a confession, it is not an admission of anything. The admission may be to the police, but in the court itself, Peter Bleach did have an opportunity to make a statement before the judge. TIMES NOW: How did you get hold of Kim Davy's photograph. You had not details, no idea of a location? JK DUTT: Peter Bleach told us that Kim Davy did not allow himself to be photographed. And when i was in Kolkata, I realised there were a number of cameras and film rolls lying. So I asked the officer in Bombay to get hold of all the camera rolls and have those films developed. Out of the 1200 photographs, we had 30 rolls, there was only one picture of Kim Davy in which he has put his hand up asking the photographer not to click, but the photo had been taken. That is the only pic of Kim Davy that existed with any of the investigating agencies. And that is the pic that was put in the RCN and was on our records. If we had not developed those films we wouldn’t have got that picture. In a stunning disclosure in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, Peter Bleach, has spoken to TIMES NOW. Bleach not only confirms that Indian politicians were involved, but also makes more startling revelations about what happened in the wee hours of December 18 1995.