Legal News at Vakilno1.com

Gujarat minister headed ‘crime syndicate’, apex court told

New Delhi,  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday told the Supreme Court that former Gujarat minister Amit Shah was the “commander of crime syndicate with some officials of state police as its foot soldiers” who would eliminate crucial witnesses in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout.

The apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was told that at every stage of the investigation, either the witness was made to retract his statement or was eliminated.

Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha referred to the instance of prosecution witness Azam Khan retracting his statement and the alleged staged shootout killing of witness Tulsiram Prajapati to buttress his argument.
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Portuguese Supreme Court cancels Abu Salem’s extradition, CBI to appeal

New Delhi,  The Portuguese Supreme Court has cancelled the extradition of alleged mobster Abu Salem to India but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it would challenge the verdict.

Salem had contended before the Portuguese court that his extradition should be cancelled as the conditions for this had not been met. However, this plea “has been rejected by the Supreme Court. Therefore, CBI is on a secure wicket,” CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra told reporters.

She said the agency would approach the external affairs ministry on filing an appeal in Portugal’s Supreme Court challenging the decision.
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Court stays warrants against CBI officers

New Delhi,  The Delhi High Court has stayed bailable warrants against two senior officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The warrants were issued by a special CBI court for failing to respond to summons and not appearing before it.

The Rohini CBI special court wanted senior CBI superintendent of police Ganesh Verma and CBI deputy legal adviser Sunder Lal to explain why the agency had failed to produce witnesses in a criminal case in August.
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Apex court asks CBI to probe Karnataka illegal mining

New Delhi/Bangalore, The Supreme Court Friday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is already under its instruction to investigate illegal mining in Karnataka, to also probe allegations of illegal extraction of iron ore by arrested mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy.

Charges of illegal extraction in Andhra Pradesh have landed Janardhana Reddy, a former Karnataka minister, in a Hyderabad jail.

Reddy, minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s B.S. Yeddyurappa-led government in Karnataka, has always asserted that his mining business was confined to Andhra Pradesh and that he was not mining in Karnataka.
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CBI to probe Reddy’s mining in Karnataka too

New Delhi/Bangalore,  The Supreme Court Friday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation, already under its instruction to investigate illegal mining in Karnataka, to also probe allegations of illegal extraction by arrested mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy.

Charges of illegal extraction in Andhra Pradesh have landed Janardhana Reddy, a former Karnataka minister, in a Hyderabad jail.

Reddy, minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s B.S. Yeddyurappa-led government in Karnataka, has always asserted that his mining business was confined to Andhra Pradesh and that he was not mining in Karnataka.

The Yeddyurappa government, which went out July 31 and the D.V. Sadananda Gowda took over as chief minister, had rejected persistent demand from opposition parties and various civil society groups to have the CBI probe Reddy’s illegal mining in Karnataka.
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2G case: Swamy gives apex court proof on Chidambaram’s role

New Delhi, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy Wednesday submitted to the Supreme Court documents indicating that Home Minister P. Chidambaram, as the then finance minister, was along with jailed former communications minister A. Raja involved in deciding the 2G spectrum price.

Swamy presented the documents before the apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly which is hearing his application seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into what he alleges to be the role of Chidambaram in deciding the price of 2G spectrum allocation.
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Don’t drag Chidambaram into 2G case, CBI tells apex court

New Delhi,  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday opposed in the Supreme Court a plea by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy for a probe into Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s role as the then finance minister in deciding the second generation (2G) spectrum pricing.

The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly was told that once the CBI had completed the probe and the special trial court was holding hearing on the framing of charges, the apex court could not direct the investigating agency to undertake a fresh probe in the matter.

Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, told the court that Swamy’s application seeking “investigation of the case in a particular manner or disposal of a case in a particular manner is not maintainable”.

As Swamy said that the “CBI was determined to give clean chit to Chidambaram”, Venugopal told the court that “what is being argued by Dr. Swamy was beyond the jurisdiction of this (apex) court” and “I will contest its maintainability”.

Justice Ganguly asked Venugopal: “Are you questioning the jurisdiction of the apex court to issue direction on the functioning of regulatory authorities?”
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Court wants law ministry report on Swan not Reliance associate

New Delhi,  The special court trying the second generation (2G) spectrum allotment case Monday agreed to the defence request and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to furnish a copy of the law minister’s report that says Swan Telecom was not an associate of Reliance Telecom.

“It is ordered CBI would place a copy of a report received by it from the Ministry of Law and Justice through the Department of Telecom (DOT) on record on the next date of hearing,” Judge O.P. Saini, who is presiding over the special court said.

Arguments on the report will be heard Sep 21.
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Supreme Court declines to oversee CWG probe

New Delhi, The Supreme Court Friday declined to interfere in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the scam in the preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

A bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra said the petitioner Delhi Study Group, an NGO, has not pointed to any deficiency in the investigations already carried out by the investigating agency.

Describing the plea for the court’s intervention into the investigation as premature, the court said that the CBI was already investigating the matter and asked what was the basis for the allegation that the agency would not investigate all facets of the case.
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New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Friday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a bail plea by four officials of the erstwhile Satyam Computers Ltd accused in one of India’s biggest corporate frauds.

A division bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma issued the notice, returnable in two weeks, after senior counsel Ashok Desai told the court that the prosecution had completed its arguments and there were no grounds for tampering with evidence.

The officials who have moved the court are the company’s former vice president G. Ramakrishna, former senior manager D. Venkatpathy Raju, former assistant manager C.S. Srisailam and former head of the company’s internal audit V.S.P. Gupta.