Jethmalani in high drama in court
Amidst a high pitched drama rarely witnessed in the Supreme Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was on Thursday allowed three months extension to complete the probe in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, haunting the Narendera Modi government while former Gujarat minister Amit Shah’s lawyer questioned the very basis of the top court order handing over the investigation to the agency.
Mr Shah’s counsel Ram Jethmalani said former SC judge Tarun Chatterjee, who retired a few months ago, should not have been a part of the bench, which passed the order for a CBI probe as “Justice Chatterjee himself was being investigated by the CBI (in Ghaziabad court PF scam). He should have not passed the order.”
Justice Aftab Alam, who was the other member of the bench with Justice Chatterjee, which passed the January 12 order for the CBI probe and headed the bench on Thursday while sitting with Justice R.M. Lodha, took serious view of Mr Jethmalani’s allegation and said “Your statement hurts me, it hurts more your reputation.”
Mr Jethmalani was not to be cowed down and said, “I have no reputation to lose in this case, I don’t care,” and questioned the CBI’s demand for extension of time even on the legal grounds, saying that the top court itself has laid down the law that once chargessheet is filed in a case, neither the SC, nor the HCs could continue to monitor a case jurisdiction under Section 173 of the CrPC automatically shifts to the trial court.
Mr Jethmalani alleged that seeking extension by the CBI is a part of a “larger conspiracy at the highest level of the polity to demolish the Gujarat government by implicating chief minister Narendra Modi and other ministers in false cases.”
“It is my duty to tell you something very embarrassing, that evidence have come to our possession showing that the conspiracy has been hatched at the highest level of the polity,” Mr Jethmalani said while his arguments were retorted to in the same tone by advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin.
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