Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday came down heavily on the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), after the agency informed the HC that it has not yet obtained the ‘ballistic’ reports from the Scotland Yard. The court has given a final chance of six weeks to the agency to procure the reports from the forensic lab.
A division bench headed by Justice Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari was hearing a bunch petitions filed by activist Ketan Tirodkar and the families of communist Govind Pansare and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
The bench had been monitoring the investigations in the case conducted by the CBI as well as the Special Investigations Team (SIT). The bench had adjourned the matter several times before after the agencies sought time to procure the ballistic reports.
On Friday the bench was irked to hear the same reason by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh who appeared for CBI.
The bench said, “You (CBI) are ‘bungling-up’ the investigations. It is high time you must now obtain the reports. You must understand your delay is giving more benefit to the accused. The pace at which you are investigating the case is giving an impression to the society that you are not ‘sincerely’ probing the case. Your ‘credibility’ is at stake and still you are just delaying the case.” The bench also pulled up SIT for their slow pace and directed them to coordinate with the CBI and complete the probe soon.
Meanwhile, the bench also granted liberty to Dabholkar’s family to make the National Investigations Agency (NIA) as a party to their petition. This comes after the family contended that the NIA has been investigating the 2009 Goa blast case. The family’s contention is that the two accused who are absconding in murder case, are also named in the Goa blast case.
