Thursday, July 7 2005 18:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: New Delhi: Controversial Godman Chandraswami today (July 05, 2005) alleged before the Delhi High Court that, the Multi- Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) set up to probe into the conspiracy angle of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination was doing only "cosmetic investigation" and claimed that, it did not do anything in the last almost eight years.

During arguments on Chandraswami's plea for permission to travel abroad, his counsel P N Lekhi accused CBI (under which MDMA works) of indulging in character assassination in the name of further investigation into Gandhi's death.

It was due to CBI's opposition that a FERA court had in December last year refused him permission to go abroad but the agency has failed to furnish any evidence against him so far, he claimed and alleged that the trial court took the decision merely on the basis of suspicion.

Lekhi said when the MDMA was set up in December 1998, it had 250 men but now only 20 persons were there and it was not clear how much time it would take to conclude the probe.

Contesting his submission, Lekhi said out of the 23 LRs sent by MDMA, only four had been responded to till date and the rest 18 might take several years.

"By that time Chandraswami may not be in this world", he said adding a person cannot be deprived of his right to travel abroad on flimsy grounds.