The defence counsel for those accused of hijacking an Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu to Kandahar moved an application on Monday, seeking permission to inspect the entire court file of the case, alleging his clients were interrogated by a foreign agency without his knowledge and their statements were ‘‘wrongly interpreted’’.
H.V. Rai, representing Dalip Kumar Bhujel and Bhupai Man Damai who are in Central Jail, said his clients told him on Sunday that FBI investigators had grilled them in January this year.
Madras HC raps judge for POTA case on juvenile |
He moved an application at the special court of District and Sessions Judge S.N. Aggarwal, appending a six-page objection that he has sent to the US Ambassador in Delhi.
Rai has requested the Ambassador to ask the FBI to interrogate his clients again in the presence of their attorney since their statements had been wrongly recorded due to ‘‘wrong interpretations’’ made by a CBI team, taking advantage of the poor literacy of his clients.
In his application, Rai has also contended that a foreign investigating agency can only interrogate an undertrial after taking permission from the government of that country. He alleged that in this case all such rules were ignored.
The FBI found direct access to his clients and he got no intimation about it. Under the circumstances, Rai has demanded to inspect all records of the court file and documents relating to the case.
He has cited the interim order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which says that the defence lawyers would join all further proceedings of the trial commencing from March 24 till the final orders in the writ petition were passed.
The accused — Abdul Latif, Bhupai Man Damai and Dalip Kumar Bujel — have been charged under Sections 120b and Sections 302/307/323/326/342/363 and 506 of the IPC, Sections 4 and 5 of the Anti-Hijacking Act, 1982, and Sections 25/27 of the Arms Act.