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Ramnath Goenka, a freedom fighter in his own right, had been instrumental in giving credence to the Right to Speech guaranteed in the Constitution of India. Though his financial dealings were questionable, Goenka had earned reputation for his fierce and fiery criticism of the Central Government and the all powerful Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in particular. His newspaper, The Indian Express, minced no words in criticizing the government policies even as the government used my independent investigation to pressurize him. To his credit, Goenka neither directly nor indirectly tried to scuttle the investigation though he was a powerful man.
Romen Chatterjee, the ring leader, insisted that the prosecutor apologized in front of all the staff members. The prosecutor, who had scolded a staffer for violating provisions of the Companies Act 1956, was scared but did not want to apologise. While I was entering my chamber, I heard Chatterjee talking to a reporter of the Amrita Bazar Patrika, Anticipating that the matter will be blown out of the proportion, I cooked up a story. I called Chatterjee in my chamber and told him that I had asked the Commissioner of Police to take action against the erring staff and that the Commissioner had said that talking to the Press would render him liable for a disciplinary action. Not knowing that I had overheard him speak to the reporter and that the story I was telling him was all made-up, Chatterjee started sweating. I was happy that I had saved the department the embarrassment.
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