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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, DEC 6: The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on a plea seeking deletion of Rajiv Gandhi8217;s name from the Bofors chargesheet even as the Government stated that he was the quot;principal conspiratorquot; in the alleged Rs 64 crore Bofors pay-off scam.
Additional Solicitor General ASG S B Jaisinghani told Justice Cyriac Joseph that the former Prime Minister had close family relations with Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochhi, who has been accused of receiving the kickback in the Rs 1437-crore Bofors gun deal with Swedish firm A B Bofors.
The ASG making a forceful plea for dismissal of the petition contended that there was no intention to quot;malign or defamequot; the former Prime Minister and his name was put in thechargesheet under legal obligation by the CBI as per the procedure prescribed under Criminal Procedure Code CrPC.
quot;If CBI had failed to mention his name in Column-II of the chargesheet it would have been guilty of dereliction of duty. In that case certain necessary information would have been withheld from the court,quot; Jaisinghani said adding that Gandhi8217;s name would have figured in Column-I, meant for the accused who are sent for trial.
But his name had been kept in Column-II because CBI was not seeking his trial.quot;
The court after hearing over six hours long arguments on maintainability of the petition even before issuing notice to the Government and the CBI, reserved its order and would decide whether the RGE had a locus standi right to challenge the CBI chargesheet and any cognizance needed to be taken to its plea.
The ASG said the whole case would collapse if Gandhi8217;s name was deleted from the chargesheet and that would benefit the accused against whom the trial was sought by theCBI.
Strongly opposing the locus standi of RGE to move the high court for deletion of Gandhi8217;s name from Column-II of the chargesheet, Jaisinghani said only the immediate members of the late premier8217;s family could have some quot;rightquot; to move the court otherwise, the law is quot;total strangerquot; to a third party intervention in a criminal case.
Since Gandhi8217;s wife Sonia Gandhi who is active in politics and the leader of the Opposition and his daughter and son had not thought it fit to move the court, what is the right of the present petitioner and how they are aggrieved, the ASG asked.
Stating that the CBI had been consistently following the same procedure of keeping the names of quot;dead personsquot; not sent for trial in Column-II, Jaisinghani produced four chargesheets including the Indira Gandhi murder case in which assassin Beant Singh8217;s name was also placed in the same column.
