RG Kar corruption case: HC dismisses former principal’s plea against framing of charges

Senior counsel Sabyasachi Banerjee for Hazra submitted in the HC, “Today at 1:30 pm there is framing of charges at the special CBI court. There are over 14,500 pages or more, so we seek time.”

Additionally, Ghosh’s counsel Joseph Rauf had moved for modification of order seeking time.

But Justice Tirthankar Ghosh did not entertain the pleas.

Both the counsels then moved to Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam division bench seeking additional time to review the documents provided by the CBI before charges are formally framed.

The Chief Justice’s division bench allowed the matter to be mentioned before a single bench, which then led to Justice Tirthankar Ghosh hearing the case at 4:30 pm.

Senior counsel Banerjee and Ayan Bhattacharya, representing Hazra and Ghosh in the High Court, argued that the order was issued in violation of the newly introduced BNSS Act.

Reiterating that all accused have the right to a fair trial, they stated, “Prayer is that we are entitled in law to get 60 days to file a discharge. We continue to remain in custody. Prayer is that the order has to be amended. The court gave an order without hearing us. I came after liberty granted by CJ. We have come to recall the application. We didn’t get papers. The IO was show-caused. The pages are unpaginated, no index more than 25,000 pages. How are we to inspect it ? Where am I to go? CBI never indicated that they were coming up with 25,000 pages. All have the right to fair trial.”

Meanwhile, representing the CBI, additional solicitor general Ashok Kumar Chakrabarti opposed Ghosh’s prayer claiming that the recalling application was not maintainable before the high court.  “I object. As there is no place for recalling. This is a case seeking extension of time for the purpose of filing a discharge petition. They want to kill time. They have asked for stay on this court’s order.”

After hearing all the sides Justice Ghosh dismissed the petition filed by Ghosh and observed that a writ court has no jurisdiction to entertain any judicial order.

The CBI special court is likely to frame charges against Sandip Ghosh and four others on February 6.