{
 "no": 63,
 "id": "case-63",
 "sk": 20010313,
 "year": 2001,
 "date": "13 Mar 2001 (tapes aired)",
 "cat": "National security",
 "sev": "amber",
 "title": "Operation West End. Cash on camera, a party president convicted",
 "stamp": "One conviction. The system unchanged.",
 "human": {
  "v": "Public trust in defence procurement, filmed being sold across a desk",
  "est": false
 },
 "cost": {
  "v": "A fictitious arms company secured meetings, and money changed hands on tape",
  "est": false
 },
 "what": "Reporters posing as arms dealers for a fictitious London firm, West End International, spent months offering bribes to secure an army contract for thermal imagers that did not exist. The tapes, aired in March 2001, showed BJP president Bangaru Laxman accepting one lakh rupees at the party office. Defence Minister George Fernandes resigned; Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly was also implicated.",
 "timeline": [
  {
   "sk": 20010313,
   "on": "13 Mar 2001",
   "kind": "incident",
   "what": "Tapes from a months-long sting are aired. The BJP president is shown accepting one lakh rupees at the party office; the Defence Minister's party is shown taking money for an army contract that did not exist."
  },
  {
   "sk": 20010315,
   "on": "Mar 2001",
   "kind": "answer",
   "what": "Bangaru Laxman resigns as BJP president. George Fernandes resigns as Defence Minister."
  },
  {
   "sk": 20010401,
   "on": "2001",
   "kind": "promise",
   "what": "A commission of inquiry is appointed to examine the affair. It is later reconstituted after its chairman steps down."
  },
  {
   "sk": 20011001,
   "on": "2001",
   "kind": "silence",
   "what": "Fernandes returns to the cabinet in under a year."
  },
  {
   "sk": 20040101,
   "on": "2004",
   "kind": "silence",
   "what": "The Phukan Commission gives Fernandes a clean chit. The succeeding government then disowns the report."
  },
  {
   "sk": 20120401,
   "on": "Apr 2012",
   "kind": "action",
   "what": "Bangaru Laxman is convicted, eleven years after the broadcast, and sentenced to four years."
  }
 ],
 "dodge": "Laxman was convicted only in April 2012, eleven years later, and sentenced to four years. Fernandes returned to the cabinet in under a year. The Phukan Commission set up to examine the affair gave him a clean chit, its report was then disowned by the succeeding government, and the judge himself later disputed how his findings were being characterised. The procurement system the sting exposed was not rebuilt.",
 "ministers": [
  {
   "n": "Bangaru Laxman",
   "r": "BJP president; convicted 2012, sentenced to four years"
  },
  {
   "n": "George Fernandes",
   "r": "Defence Minister; resigned March 2001, returned to cabinet"
  },
  {
   "n": "Jaya Jaitly",
   "r": "Samata Party president; convicted 2020"
  }
 ],
 "pos": "The government argued the sting was entrapment and questioned the methods and funding of the journalists involved, and Fernandes maintained he had no part in any transaction.",
 "alleg": "The tapes established that money was taken. <em>Wider claims that the ruling coalition systematically sold defence contracts were never proven in court</em>, and several of those named were cleared.",
 "alt": "A defence procurement audit published in full, a time-bound trial rather than an eleven-year one, and a commission whose findings the next government was willing to stand behind.",
 "sources": [
  {
   "label": "ThePrint: Operation West End, the 2001 sting explained",
   "url": "https://theprint.in/theprint-essential/operation-west-end-the-2001-tehelka-sting-that-led-to-jaya-jaitlys-conviction/469214/",
   "tier": 2
  },
  {
   "label": "Deccan Herald: HC grants bail to Bangaru Laxman",
   "url": "https://www.deccanherald.com/india/hc-grants-bail-bangaru-laxman-2365634",
   "tier": 2
  }
 ],
 "resignations": [
  {
   "n": "George Fernandes",
   "office": "Union Defence Minister",
   "when": "Mar 2001",
   "year": 2001,
   "level": "union",
   "party": "Samata Party"
  }
 ],
 "caseUrl": "https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-63/"
}