NEW DELHI: Taking a serious view of the lack of progress in the 1990 St Kitts case investigations, the Supreme Court said that if a situation was reached where no candid result could be achieved in the. Probe tie court may be freed w recording that the machinery in the country had come to a grinding halt.
The observations by a two judge Bench comprising Justice J.S, Verma and Justice BIN. Kirpal, came after the Amicus Curare ‘and counsel for the public interest petition against Chandraswamy, Anil Diwan, told the court that the CBI had completed its been the case in March 1991 itself and its stand last week that not much progress had been achieved in the case to take action was an “eyewash.”
Diwan had submitted that not a single had been interrogated since March 1991 and the CBI was “deliberately dragging its feet and allowing vital evidence to disappear.”
Diwan, said that there was enough oral and document evidence already collected by the CBI to frame charges against Chandraswamy as also the Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and to prosecute them in the alleged forgery of an account in the name of Ajaya Singh, son of former Prime Minister V, P. Singh with the intention of defaming both the persons.
Diwan forwarded a copy of a letter by the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties to the court, seeking a direction to divest the CBI and the present investigating team of the case and entrust it to the team which had started the probe and taken it thus far during the nine months till March 1991.
At this sag, the judges observed that the court, before taking any such step will have to satisfy itself whether the investigating agencies were discharging their duties as was required of them.
“If they are, there can be no question of taking such steps. But if there is ¢ reasonable basis for this court to interfere that there is some deficiency, then the court will have to find out whether it was deliberate, by oversight or done unwittingly. Even after coming to such a view, the agencies may still realize their mistake and continue to progress in the case,” the judges said.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 17, 1996
