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Journalism of Courage
CHANDIGARH, Sept 4: The 12-year-old controversy regarding Inderjeet Singh8217;s alleged murder case continued today with Central Bureau of Investigation claiming DIG K C Kanungo8217;s report to be a privileged document.
The premier investigating agency, on the last date of hearing, had placed the report in a sealed cover before UT Chief Judicial Magistrate Sant Parkash, on his directions.
The report assumes significance as DIG Kunango, in a letter to the director CBI, had stated that Inderjeet Singh had not committed suicide as claimed by the CBI8217;s earlier report, but had in fact been murdered. The report had also allegedly indicted three local CBI officers for passing on the murder as suicide.
Today, arguing before the court, CBI8217;s deputy legal advisor J S Sidhu contended that the privilege under the CBI manual, approved by the Government of India, could be claimed as the communication was confidential in nature. Moreover, the report was not the final one.
He further stated that the investigating officer8217;s report, being a part of the internal office file, could not be made public. The interest of the masses would suffer, he added.
The counsel for the complainant Alah Singh, on the other hand, argued that merely labelling the report as confidential did not make it a privileged document. He added that reports by the investigating officers were not privileged documents and the court could call for the report and look into it. Kunango8217;s report cannot be hushed up by any officer higher in hierarchy, he further argued.
