The Hindu : CBI opposes Hindujas' plea

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 11, 2003

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CBI opposes Hindujas' plea

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI Jan. 10. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has opposed stay of the trial by the Supreme Court in the `Rs. 64-crore Bofors payoff case' .

In its appeal challenging the quashing of chargesheets against the Hinduja brothers, the CBI sought vacation of the stay.

A Bench, comprising Justice M.B. Shah and Justice Dharmadhikari, adjourned by two weeks the hearing of the matter including relaxation of bail condition to allow all the three brothers — G.P. Hinduja, P.P. Hinduja and S.P. Hinduja — to go abroad.

The CBI said the Hindujas did not deserve any special treatment. It said the respondents had been consistently trying to delay the proceedings and one pretext or the other ensured that the trial did not proceed further. It said stay of the trial should not be entertained and urged the court to vacate the stay.

The agency submitted that the application filed by the Hindujas to stay the trial was a gross abuse of the process of law.

``What is even more surprising is the fact that contrary to normal practice of this court, the application was not even filed, much less numbered, when the matter was mentioned on November 29, 2002.''

After oral mention, the application was filed the next day and it was listed for hearing on December 2, making it difficult for the CBI to file a reply.

And on December 2, the court stayed the commencement of the trial from December 4.

It said the Supreme Court in September last had confirmed the stay of the High Court order and rejected the plea of the Hindujas for stay of the trial.

Further, the court said they did not deserve any out-of-turn preference for the appeal being heard expeditiously when thousands of litigants were languishing in jail due to paucity of time, the CBI said.

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