The parliamentary special committee formed to investigate allegations of budget tampering against former finance minister Janardan Sharma has failed to gather closed-circuit TV (CCTV) footage.
The committee's meeting on Sunday had summoned experts to observe the footage but the footage could not be obtained, according to a lawmaker in the probe committee. "Can't say many more things. But the footage we sought was not provided," the lawmaker stated.
The lawmaker revealed that chief of the administration division at the Finance Ministry, IT engineer related to CCTV, chief of the budget division, and Finance Secretary Madhu Marasini and Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar gave testimonies during the meeting.
"We listened to everyone. But neither the CCTV footage was found nor they conceded that unrelated persons came while preparing the budget," the lawmaker stated adding that the committee will now focus on acquiring the footage.
Sharma has been accused of inviting unauthorized persons to the Finance Ministry to change tax rates at the time of finalizing the budget. He has denied the allegations.
He courted another controversy when the Finance Ministry, responding to a right to information (RTI) request seeking closed-circuit TV (CCTV) footage of the night before the budget presentation, said that it does not have CCTV footage of more than 13 days.
Sharma resigned on July 6 to facilitate investigation over the allegations but secretaries Marasini and Pushkar have been reporting for duty.
They are also under investigation as they led the staffers in preparations of the budget and were also present when the unauthorized persons allegedly entered the ministry.
