New Delhi :In a significant development, the government today ruled out withdrawal of its charges against Tehelka news portal and submitted before the Venkataswami Commission documents including a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) report in support of its allegations.

During a hearing, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, representing the government, said it was not going to withdraw the charges, and instead was submitting the documents along with an additional affidavit in support of them.The documents were submitted following a direction from the Commission that either the government withdraw the charges or produce relevant documents in support of them.

Government had alleged that "economic benefits" were the motives behind the sting operation and that the news portal had indulged in "massive scale of operations" in the share market before the arms deal exposé leading to its crash.The other documents include a copy of report regarding the taxability of the alleged share premium in Buffalo Network (owner of Tehelka.com), copy of the appraisal report (except the portion relating to specific suggestions for further follow-up enquiry and investigation) prepared in pursuant to the search carried out on the offices and residential premises of First Global, also accused of getting benefits of these economic deals.

The Commission also upheld Government's request for in-camera hearing for 'Hand Held Thermal Images' (HHTI). The government had sought claim of privilege citing reasons of national security and public interest as grounds for doing so.The demand for in-camera proceedings for 'HHTI' was contested by Commission's counsel Gopal Subramaniam saying the sensitive details of the deal could be held in-camera with rest of the proceedings of the transaction in public.

Subramaniam also submitted that the HHTI transaction was closely linked with 'Westend', which the Commission has decided to examine as a separate transaction altogether.However, expressing serious concerns of public interest and national security, Sorabjee said if the HHTI proceedings were held in-public, the witness, expected to appear for oral examination will not be able to reveal the facts completely due to "sensitivity" of some matters.

The Commission after hearing both Sorabjee and Subramaniam decided to go ahead with in-camera proceedings for HHTI, which began after the public hearing today.The Commission will also examine the government's reply to its three interrogatories on 'Simulators', 'Image intensifying Tubes' and 'Carl Gustav Rocket Launchers'.The Commission was also asked to consider issuance of notice to cross-examine Shanker Sharma, owner of First Global, by the government. The Commission will take a decision on the matter tomorrow.