New Delhi, May 8 :    New Delhi, May 8:  Defence minister George Fernandes today slammed the Tehelka sting operation as a 'sham' and said he doubted the veracity of the tapes that depicted corruption in defence deals. Deposing before the Justice K. Venkataswami Commission of inquiry for the first time since the scandal erupted, Fernandes said the entire episode was aimed at defaming him, his party and demoralising the armed forces. 'If they (the Tehelka reporters) had the genuine aim of exposing corruption, then they should have cross-checked with me or even the Prime Minister,' he said during cross-examination by the commission's counsel, Siddharth Luthra. Fernandes said the secret operation served to 'help only Pakistan', besides lowering the 'morale' of the armed forces. 'The fake arms purchase deals,' Fernandes declared from the witness box, 'made it clear that it had mala fide and not noble intentions.' In the bargain, the losers were 'defence personnel, morale of my country and morale of the troops', Fernandes, who was forced to resign as defence minister after the exposé but was later reinstated, told the commission. If the news portal had no faith in 'me or the Prime Minister, they should have approached the supreme commander of the armed forces - the President of India - on the whole issue', he added. The defence minister said the sting operatives should be probed for their 'mala fide intentions'. 'Their motives were against the defence ministry, the defence minister with objectives which needed to be probed', Fernandes said. 'If they (Tehelka) had information of any such corruption in the ministry, then, they should have approached me. But.... no ... they had assumed that the defence minister was corrupt,' he argued, to buttress his contentions. The portal, he added, had 'bad intentions' against Atal Bihari Vajpayee also as they had made allegations of corruption against the Prime Minister. 'They could have gone to the Prime Minister... but according to them, he (Vajpayee) was also involved in various money transactions,' Fernandes said. The Samata Party leader said his party's treasurer R.K. Jain, who was accused of accepting money from the Tehelka team for facilitating defence deals, had ceased to hold the post much before the Tehelka tapes were made public in March 2001. According to the Samata's constitution, the post of the treasurer, he said, was 'not very important' as that of the president's. Fernandes said he had never known Tarun Tejpal, the managing editor of the news portal or any of the reporters, Anirudh Bahal or Samuel Mathews, who had carried out the sting operation. So he had no animosity against them. 'On that day (March 13, 2001, when the tapes were made public), I was doing roster duty in Parliament,' he said. 'I got a note from my office saying something serious has happened. Please come to South Block at once,' he said, recalling the content of the note. 'At the office I saw two tapes and some documents.... And (the) tapes .... when I viewed (them), were dark but there were some head movements and what got my attention immediately was the sub-title at the bottom of the picture: 'The defence minister was beyond redemption',' Fernandes said. 'I went through the documents. As the same day there was a Cabinet meeting and the Prime Minister wanted to know, my Cabinet colleagues wanted to know what exactly it was. I had to brief the Cabinet.... The whole thing was a sham,' he added. Kargil coffin ruckus The Rajya Sabha was thrown into turmoil today over the coffin scam, leading to a brief adjournment and an Opposition walkout even as the defence minister said the government could probe the purchase of caskets for slain soldiers at Kargil. After the Opposition parties, barring the ADMK, walked out, George Fernandes said the Indian embassy in Washington had been asked to give details about the caskets' procurement from the US and this would be handed over to the public accounts committee, already investigating the issue. Earlier, the upper House was plunged into turmoil when Congress member Suresh Pachouri raised the issue during zero hour, demanding Fernandes' resignation and a statement from the Prime Minister on a court notice to the CBI to register a case against those involved in the Tehelka expose.