CBI traces Laloo-Romesh links
From Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 4 — The Central Bureau of Investigation is closing in on establishing links between self-styled politician Romesh Sharma and former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.

According to sources, the members of the CBI team investigating into the fodder scam in Bihar, in which the former Chief Minister has been named, were in the Capital recently to check on the financial dealings between Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and Romesh Sharma. The CBI had earlier unearthed other evidence which showed that Dawood Ibrahim’s henchman Romesh Sharma had close links with the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief.

Armed with various account numbers, the CBI men with specific instructions from Joint Director UN Biswas, checked on the financial dealings of Romesh Sharma and the possibility of the misappropriated "fodder scam" money being remitted out of the country. Sources in the Delhi police also confirmed that even they had stumbled upon evidence establishing links between Romesh Sharma and the former Bihar Chief Minister.

According to sources, the CBI team, which was here in Delhi late last week, after investigations had tracked a huge amount of foreign exchange remittances into at least two accounts which the Dawood frontman maintained. The CBI team had apparently checked out on the financial dealings from three accounts in various banks in the Capital, but had found huge remittances in only two accounts.

Reports said that there were remittances of huge amounts of foreign exchange into these two accounts from abroad. While one of the accounts was being maintained in a multinational bank, the other was being operated in a nationalised bank.

All the bank accounts of Romesh Sharma, meanwhile, have been sealed and investigations are under way to check on the sources of remittances into and from these accounts. The investigating agencies had unearthed that Romesh Sharma maintained over a dozen accounts in various banks across Delhi.

Earlier, the CBI had also unearthed evidence to show the booking of hotel rooms for Romesh Sharma at Patna in which reference had been given of the Chief Minister’s residence. Besides, the telephone records picked up by the investigating agency had also disclosed that Romesh Sharma had been in constant touch with the Chief Minister’s residence.

Reports said that there had been three bookings at a particular hotel in Patna for Romesh Sharma during 1997-98 and in all the three bookings, the local reference had been given of the Chief Minister’s residence. Records seized by the CBI pointed out that while two of the three bookings had been done by the private secretary of the former Chief Minister another had been done by an RJD MLA.

Telephone records had also disclosed that immediately after checking into the hotel rooms, Romesh Sharma had called the Chief Minister’s residence on different telephone numbers. Romesh Sharma had allegedly called on these telephone numbers installed at the Chief Minister’s residence on several occasions during his stay at Patna.

The CBI also unearthed that one of the hotel bills of Romesh Sharma had been marked and apparently paid by the Dy S.P. Town (Patna). The investigations are now under way to check on the exact dealings which the Dawood frontman had with the former Bihar Chief Minister, sources said.