New Delhi: The commission inquiring into the defence deals expose by news portal 'Tehelka' today (Oct 31) rejected the portal's prayer for disclosure of names of the foreign experts examining its video tapes used in the sting operation.

Commission chairman Justice S N Phukan said it was decided to keep the names of the experts a secret so as to prevent interested parties from attempting to influence the people carrying out the forensic examination of the tapes.

"The commission also felt that the names need not be disclosed in as much as the expert will be available for examination and cross-examination after submission of the report," Justice Phukan recalled.

Terming as "baseless" Tehelka's allegation that the Government of India was trying to influence the experts, Justice Phukan observed that the portal has brought no material on record to substantiate the same.

The commission also rejected Tehelka's request that the forensic examination be done in the commission's premises in the presence of various noticees.

The commission had on September 19, 2003 directed Tehelka to produce the original recording equipment before it so that these can be sent for forensic examination by a forensic agency based in the UK.

However, the commission acceded to Tehelka's request to arrange for technical signature of the 'heads' in the recording devices to be recorded prior to submission of its original equipment.

Justice Phukan observed that submission of Shanti Bhushan, counsel for Tehelka, regarding lack of transparency due to non-disclosure of the name of the expert was misplaced as the name, the process and manner of examination would be apparent when the expert would give his report.

"In any case, non-disclosure of the name of the expert at this stage would not cause prejudice to any party including the applicant as the expert will be available for cross-examination by the parties after submission of the report and only thereafter the acceptability of the opinion of the expert will be decided," he said.

PTI