The Delhi high court has stayed an order of a special court which had issued bailable warrants against two senior CBI officers for failing to appear before it in compliance with summons to explain why the agency had failed to produce witnesses in a criminal case in August. Justice Ajit Bharihoke also stayed the court’s showcause notice to the CBI director on the issue and fixed September 28 for further hearing of the matter.
The HC passed the order after hearing an appeal filed by Ganesh Verma, SSP, CBI, who contended that on August 29 the special court had wrongly issued summons to him and Sunder Lal, deputy legal adviser (DLA) with the agency, as court staff had failed to issue the summons to the witnesses for testimony in the case.
According to the petition, on July 18 a special CBI court in Rohini had partially recorded the statements of two witnesses in a criminal case pending before it.
The court had passed summoning order against the two officers after the witnesses failed to appear for further recording of their statement on August 29 due to fault of the court staff, the petitioners alleged.
Again on September 3, the court had issued bailable warrants against the CBI officers and also issued notice to the agency’s director in the case.