Thursday, May 5 2005 08:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Besides the Shirdi shrine, Justice S N Phukan, who probed the Tehelka expose on Defence deals, also visited famous Ajanta and Ellora caves during his tour of Defence establishments in Maharashtra.

Phukan was accompanied by his wife and eight officials of the Commission on a tour of Pune, Ahmadnagar and Mumbai to inspect weapons system facilities, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee informed Parliament yesterday (May 4, 2005).

However, his team comprised only lawyers and officials of the Commission, but no experts, he said in a statement in Lok Sabha.

Mukherjee said the visits, projected by the Commission for inspecting weapons systems under probe, were approved by on December 22, 2003 by the then Defence Minister George Fernandes, when it was inquiring into 14 major Defence deals including acquisition of Russian-made T-90 tanks, Sukhoi 30 warplanes, Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers and Barak anti-missile systems.

Later replying to a spate of queries from members in Rajya Sabha, he described the tour by service aircraft by Phukan and his commission officials as an "unusual case".

"Either the Commission asked for the tour or the Defence Minister arranged it," Mukherjee said commenting that nothing prevented the Commission from saying "no" as civilian flights to all these destinations were easily available.

He said that in all cases where special airlift facilities were accorded the reasons had to be "put on record".

"There is no trace of such reasons in the files," he said.