New Delhi: Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, facing trial in the 100,000 Dollar Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case, today (Nov 28) told a Delhi court that he was falsely implicated in the "politically motivated" matter.

"I am innocent", Rao told Special Judge Dinesh Dayal at the court-room set up at the high security Vigyan Bhavan annexe in New Delhi.

Claiming that he had "no knowledge" about any financial transactions between complainant Pathak and Godman Chandraswami, Rao said the case was "politically motivated" and that he was "falsely implicated" in it.

"The case had changed the course of India's political history. But I am not asking any inference to be drawn from the political aspect of the case," the former Premier's counsel Kapil Sibal later told the court.

However, it was curious that Rao's name was mentioned for the first time in the case 12 years after the alleged incident and that too at the fag end of his tenure as the Prime Minister, Sibal said, adding that the matter was based solely on Pathak's statement.

According to CBI, Rao, Chandraswami and the Godman's aide K N Agarwal alias Mamaji allegedly cheated UK-based pickle tycoon Pathak of one lakh USD in the name of giving him a contract for the supply of newsprint and paper-pulp in India.

PTI