CBI tampering with evidence

The Supreme Court was told by an accused in the 2G case Tuesday that the Central Bureau of Investigation was tampering with evidence by asking the telecom regulator to revisit its opinion that the precise value of the spectrum, if it had been auctioned, could not be arrived at.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani told an apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice H.L. Dattu that "CBI intended correspondence so that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India should change its opinion amounts to tampering with evidence - a habit his client are totally free of".

Jethmalani was arguing on the bail plea of Unitech's Sanjay Chandra. The court was hearing a plea by Chandra and Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom challenging the Delhi High Court's May 23 verdict rejecting their bail applications.

As Jethmalani told the court that "if CBI don't want to rely on a piece of evidence as it does not suit them, it is entirely up to them. But the disclosure of that evidence must be made", Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval gave the copy of TRAI's opinion to the court and the petitioner's counsel.

Senior counsel told the court that normally the apex court did not interfere with the high court's findings in bail matters, but if "there is grave, blatant and atrocious miscarriage of justice and raises important question of law" then the apex court may interfere with it.

The court was told that Chandra had cooperated and made himself available to the investigating agency as and when it asked him to. The court was told that in one instance when Chandra was abroad and was required by the investigating agency, he cut short his visit and came back to India.

Describing the high court judgment as "wonderful", Jethmalani said that the fact that his client was not arrested by the investigating agency was held against him (in the high court) as his being "very influential".

Referring to certain media reports, the court said: "Irrespective of the dignity of any person in the society, leave aside those who are accused in the case, they are assassinated in the society."

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Asked action for questionable probe in murder case

Additional sessions judge N K Kaushik has asked Delhi Police commissioner to take action against R R Khatana, for conducting a questionable probe into a murder leading to the acquittal of all three accused. The judge said that inspector had tried to "raise unnecessary dust just to cause utter confusion and hide the truth". Noting that there was a string of lapses in the probe conducted by Khatana in the murder of west Delhi resident Hitender Singh, the court said, "It appears the inspector made it a point, in a calculated manner, may be in collusion with the accused, to ensure the failure of the prosecution's case during investigation itself."

While acquitting the murder accused in the case - Darshan Dabas, Navin Deshwal and Manish Lakra - the court held the inspector responsible for weakening the case and referred the matter to the police commissioner. "A copy of the judgment be sent to the police commissioner to take appropriate action against the delinquent investigating officer (Khatana) for not collecting cogent and requisite evidence in the matter, as per law, to get the offenders of such heinous offence punished," the judge said while also seeking a compliance report of its order from police.

The case dates back to November 10, 2008, when Nazafgarh resident Singh was found dead in his car parked near a banquet hall. Lying in a pool of blood, the man had sustained several bullet injuries. The police had also found the window-pane of the car's front door shattered and the driver's seat soaked in blood. A live cartridge and a shell were also found in the car besides a broken baseball bat stained with blood.

The prosecution had listed 47 witnesses to bolster its case but the public prosecutor later dropped several of them, saying their deposition was irrelevant. During the trial all witnesses including the parents, brothers and the wife of the deceased had turned hostile.

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