Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 13, 2008
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Riots-case-against-Tytler-CBI-pulled-up-for-not-filing-status-report/283820/
A city court criticised the Central Bureau
of Investigation on Wednesday for its failure to submit the report on a probe
into the alleged role of Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in a 1984 anti-Sikh
riots case.
Directing the agency to file the report on
April 9, the next date of hearing, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate
(ACMM) Sanjiv Jain took it to task for its laxity in submitting the status
report even as it claimed to have recorded statements of some other witnesses.
"There was no bar on you (CBI) to investigate
the matter even if a connecting matter was pending in the High Court. It is
your duty to file the status report," said the ACMM, reacting to the
prosecutor's contention that a petition by US-based witness Jasbir Singh was
yet to be decided by the higher court.
Jasbir, who claims to be an eyewitness, had
filed a petition in the High Court against the CBI's notice to him to come
down to India for recording his statement while he insisted on doing it through
video-conferencing.
"Nowhere in my order I had stated that
you had to examine only this witness (Jasbir)," the ACMM said when the
CBI's counsel argued that the matter (Jasbir's petition) was sub judice.
The CBI counsel said they were restrained
to file another chargesheet in the case, to which the ACMM said the agency
was being asked only for the status report and not for a comprehensive chargesheet.
The ACMM also expressed displeasure over the
fact that despite the elongated argument over what the High Court had said
on Jasbir's petition during the last hearing in February, the CBI counsel
did not carry a copy of the order to clarify the issue.
"I don't know your part of the investigation
since there is no status report. I also don't know what was the order of the
High Court as there is no copy of it. What order would I pass," asked
the ACMM.
Jasbir's counsel Sharat Kapoor charged the
CBI with intentionally delaying the matter. He also termed as "absurd"
its argument in the HC that they required Jasbir to be physically present
to confront him with other investigated material on record.
The CBI, following the court order directing
it to reinvestigate Tytler's role in the case, had issued notice to Singh
on January 2, under Section 160 of the CrPC, which empowers the probe agency
to seek presence of a witness.
The CBI had earlier filed a report before
the court on September 29, 2007, claiming that Jasbir Singh had allegedly
heard Tytler inciting a mob to kill Sikhs after the assassination of former
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, but his whereabouts could not be located.
