Rohtak court tells CBI to file status report

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, December 2

A district court today asked the CBI to file its status report about the transfer of certain cases pertaining to the incidents of arson and violence witnessed during the Jat agitation for reservation in February.

Certain arson cases, including the case pertaining to the burning of the local residence of Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu, were handed over to the CBI recently. Prior to that, the SIT probing the matter had arrested 40 persons in connection with the cases of arson and violence at the properties of Capt Abhimanyu.

After being handed over the cases, the CBI had approached the district court hearing the cases and requested that the cases taken over by it be transferred to the Special CBI court at Panchkula.

For this, the CBI was required to move the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seek permission for the transfer of the said cases to the CBI court and present the status report in this regard before the Rohtak court.

Counsel for the CBI had sought some time for this, which was granted by the Rohtak court.

However, the CBI failed to file the status report before the court of Rohtak Additional Sessions Judge Sudhir Jeewan today as well. The CBI counsel sought another week to file the status report.

The Judge asked the CBI to file the status report by the next hearing, which has been fixed for December 13.

Pardeep Malik, counsel for some of the accused in the said cases, maintained that the fundamental rights and liberty of the accused were being curtailed owing to the inordinate delay in filing of the status report on the matter. The bail applications of 12 accused are pending due to the imbroglio, he added.

“We can neither pursue the bail applications at the Rohtak court nor move the Special CBI court until the status report is filed and the case is formally transferred,” Malik maintained.