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Kalyan Singh won't depose before Liberhan Commission

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Unmoved by the bailable warrant issued against him by the Liberhan Commission on Thursday, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh said, "I do not think the commission can compel me to depose before it."

Set up in 1993, the judicial commission headed by Justice Liberhan was to inquire into the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

Kalyan told rediff.com this evening , "The warrant cannot force me to depose. I have been given 10 days to reply and I will do so after consultations with my lawyer, who is arriving here from Delhi tomorrow."

He added, "I will also check whether the commission can force me to appear." Asked if he would depose in case it was binding, he said, "I will cross the bridge when it comes."

The ousted BJP leader felt the commission was duplicating what a special Central Bureau of Investigation court was already doing. "The CBI court has already reached the stage for framing charges in the case, for which some 29 persons have been summoned on September 15."

When asked why he was avoiding the commission, which had summoned him a number of times in the past, the former chief minister said, "The high court had stayed the operation of legal provisions under which I had been earlier summoned by the commission."

He said, "I know once I appear as a witness, the next person to be summoned would be the Union Home Minister L K Advani."

"I was misled by Bharatiya Janata Party's top leadership into believing that there would be absolutely no trouble if kar seva was allowed in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992," he claimed.

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