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Deposing before the commission on Tuesday Shekib A Arsalan said Mathew, a Tehelka.com reporter who had posed as a representative of a company dealing in defence parts in the Tehelka tapes, had demanded monetary rewards from him after coming to know of his desire to meet influential people, including Defence Minister George Fernandes and Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley, in pursuance of his objective to sell his company's products.
"Mr Samuel boasted that he was very close to Ms Jaya Jaitley and that for helping me, he needed to take Ms Jaya Jaitley to Centaur Hotel to discuss business," Arsalan, who claimed to be a representative of Israel-based Technical Equipment International (TEI) in India, told the commission.
He claimed to have paid Rs 55,000 to Mathew, which the latter had demanded as initial payment.
Arsalan told the commission that he paid Rs 6,000, through one of his acquaintances Madhu Shekhar, to Mathew for providing alcohol for Jaya Jaitley.
He said that Mathew also demanded brochures of TEI's products along with a written proposal for Jaitley.
However, when Mathew disappeared "I realized that he was not a gentleman and that he had cheated me. It was clear that he did not know Ms Jaya Jaitley or Mr George Fernandes or any other influential person," Arsalan told the commission.
He said that he wanted to meet 'persons in high places' for promoting his products.
However, during cross-examination by counsel for Tehelka.com Kebin Gulati, Arsalan denied having any kind of agreement in writing with the company whose products he was promoting.
He said the company was to compensate him with 'service charges' and not a regular salary for his efforts and admitted that he had no knowledge about the products.
During cross-examination, Arsalan also admitted that he had not seen any of the products.
He also claimed to have got a certificate about his products from the then inspector general of Nagaland police T M Watti, with whom he had 'good relations' and had even met Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and S C Jamir, former chief ministers of Assam and Nagaland, respectively.
PTI
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