NEW DELHI, May 13: The Indian government ordered a new probe on Friday into the so-called ‘Tehelka scam’ in which top politicians and army brass were secretly filmed apparently taking bribes from reporters posing as arms dealers. The Congress-backed government threw out a 41-page report of an inquiry by judge S.N. Phukan into the 2001 incident that had been ordered by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, saying it was ‘not complete’.

The order for the new inquiry followed sensational footage shot on March 13, 2001, that nearly brought down the government and rocked the military establishment. The videotape showed 31 national politicians, bureaucrats and top defence officials allegedly accepting money from fake arms dealers. The sting operation was carried out by upstart news site www.tehelka.com, which now functions as an investigative weekly broadsheet.

A government spokesman said the allegations that those filmed took bribes were being handed to the national police agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, for a full investigation.

“The (Phukan) commission has given its report only on two of the terms of reference instead of the four made to it, and so it is not complete and therefore the government has rejected it,” the government spokesman said. The BJP government-ordered inquiry finished its probe in October last year _ three years after being set up.

Journalists from tehelka.com secretly videotaped then BJP president Bangau Laxman and senior defence officials apparently accepting bribes in return for favours to their fictitious firms.

Mr Laxman, shown on tape apparently shovelling money into his desk drawer, was promptly dismissed as party president.

The tape was filmed at the home of former defence minister George Fernandes and led to his resignation.

Mr Fernandes, who was not present at the time of the filming, was later reinstated as minister, while the home and office of the owner of the website, Tarun Tejpal, were repeatedly raided by government agencies, including the tax department and intelligence bureau.

Mr Tejpal said at the time that the government had accused the website of working with Pakistan as part of a campaign to discredit the news outlet. Critics said the aim was to deter journalists from pursuing political corruption stories.

Earlier this month, a parliamentary body accused Mr Fernandes of offering judge Phukan and his wife a government-paid pilgrimage aboard a military plane in what critics said amounted to bribing the judge probing the bribery scandal. Mr Fernandes has denied any wrongdoing.—AFP