Sunday, January 9 2005 12:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Delhi Congressman Ramesh Dalal, who has approached the Delhi High Court for a CBI probe into the alleged murder of Jain Commission witness Rajinder Jain, has denied controversial godman Chandraswamy's allegations that his move was aimed at pleasing a "particular individual" to get political mileage out of it.

In his reply to Chandraswamy's plea for being impleaded in the case, Dalal termed his allegations as reckless, wild and vague and claimed they had been made to mislead the court and divert its attention from the main issue.

Contending that Chandraswamy had no right to intervene in the matter at this stage, he said his application was totally frivolous, bereft of merit and liable to be dismissed.

In his petition filed through counsel Santosh Chauriha, Chandraswamy had termed Dalal's petition as an abuse of the process of law, and claimed that it was filed "only to please a particular individual to get political mileage through the process of this Honourable Court".

Justice Ravinder S Bhat had on January 6 issued notices to Delhi Police, CBI and Dalal after senior counsel P N Lekhi submitted on behalf of Chandraswamy that he must be heard before any order was passed on Dalal's petition as he was likely to be adversely affected by the court's order.

The matter would be taken up for hearing on January 31.

Accusing Chandraswamy of being part of the conspiracy to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Dalal charged him with getting Rajinder Jain, a journalist, 'eliminated' in 1997 as the latter had knowledge of his alleged involvement in it.