UP PF scam: SC to hear CBI’s plea to shift trial to Delhi

A Special Bench comprising Justices D K Jain,S V Sirpurkar and G S Singhvi allowed the plea of some accused including a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court,to file an affidavit to oppose the CBI’s plea seeking transfer of the case outside Uttar Pradesh.

Justice Ravindra Kumar Mishra,who is one of the 70 accused chargesheeted in the case,has opposed the agency’s plea to shift the trial to Delhi.

His counsel and senior advocate P S Patwari said shifting of the trial has been opposed as the courts in Delhi are over-burdened.

However,his submission did not impress the Bench which said “if that is the case we will ask the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to allocate the case to a judge who can hear it on a day-to-day basis”.

Meanwhile,Ghaziabad District Judge Vishnu Chandra Gupta,whose alleged interference in the trial of the case has come under judicial scrutiny,claimed he had not committed anything wrong or caused hindrance in the progress of the case.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi,appearing for Gupta,said it is absolutely wrong the district judge was obstructing proceedings because he had called officials connected with the probe. He had to give a response to the apex court about the main accused Ashutosh Asthana’s wife. Asthana died in judicial custody at Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad.

Rohatgi said since Asthana’s wife was exonerated,he needed the papers from the CBI to know the position.

Rohatgi said he should be discharged from answering the notice issued to him.

However,the Bench said the district judge can answer allegations raised by CBI by filing an affidavit.

The apex court had on August 4 sought an explanation from Gupta for allegedly interfering in the trial.

It had taken a serious note of the allegation that the district judge was causing hindrance to the CBI in prosecuting the case.

During the earlier hearing,the Bench had questioned the conduct of the district judge,saying: “It is a direct interference in the course of justice as it is monitored by us”.

The Bench had issued notices to the 70 accused on the plea by CBI for shifting the trial in the case outside Uttar Pradesh,and preferably to Delhi.

CBI had filed a status report on July 28 in a sealed cover and said there was “no evidence” against 17 judges and there was lack of sufficient evidence to prosecute the remaining 24 judicial officers in the case.

In the report,CBI has reportedly said apex court judge Tarun Chatterjee (since retired) is among the 24 judicial officers against whom there is “no prosecutable” evidence.

The chargesheet,filed by the CBI,has also named six retired district judges,out of whom three — Ravindra Kumar Mishra,Ajay Kumar Singh and Radhey Shyam Chaubey – were elevated to the Allahabad High Court.

The other three judges were Ram Prasad Mishra,R P Yadav and Arun Kumar.

CBI had submitted trial in the case should be shifted out as there are 25 class III and IV employees of the Ghaziabad District Court who are crucial witnesses and are likely to be influenced.

The apex court had on July 28 stayed the proceedings in the PF scam before a special CBI court after the agency had submitted that some “extremely disturbing” incidents warranted shifting of the trial in the case outside the state.

Attorney General G E Vahanvati had said immediate shifting of the trial outside Uttar Pradesh was necessary as there have been “extremely disturbing incidents in the Ghaziabad Court”.

He had alleged the district judge,under whose jurisdiction the CBI judge works,has been orally asking the state police to involve themselves in the case which has been handed over to the CBI.

The judge had sought the case diary from Uttar Pradesh police which had initially investigated the scam,he had submitted.

The AG had further said the proceedings of the case have to be kept away from the court in Uttar Pradesh as six of the judicial officers whose names have cropped up in the scam have been elevated as judges of High Courts.

Vahanvati had said the report about the 24 judges,against whom there is no sufficient prosecutable evidence,was sent to Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia and the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court for taking administrative action for their alleged misconduct.

He had said the CBI till March examined 220 witnesses,including judicial officers,and the agency was in the process of sifting through 30,000 specimen signatures of the accused to establish the case and had sought time to complete the probe.

The prime accused in the multi-crore scam Ashutosh Asthana,43,died under mysterious circumstances on October 17,2009,at Dasna district jail in Ghaziabad where he was lodged in connection with the case.

The accused,who was a treasury officer at the Ghaziabad court,was arrested in April 2008 for allegedly siphoning off the provident funds of class III and IV employees.

During investigation and interrogation of Asthana,names of judges of various courts had cropped up as alleged beneficiaries of the scam.

CBI is investigating the case under the apex court’s direction.