Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 25 (IANS) A Delhi court Wednesday asked the police to properly probe a case related to a CD purportedly containing a conversation between lawyer and Team Anna member Shanti Bhushan and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and rejected the investigators’ plea to close the matter.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav directed deputy commissioner of police, Delhi Police special cell, to get the matter probed thoroughly and file a report.

The CD purportedly contained conversation that had Bhushan allegedly promising Mulayam Singh that a judge could be influenced and suggesting that his son and lawyer Prashant Bhushan would facilitate this.

The court also proposed taking departmental action against investigating officer Inspector Ravinder and constable Sudesh Kumar who were found negligent in performance of their duties.

CMM Yadav said: “This court is of the firm opinion that the investigation in the matter has not been conducted properly. Considering the nature of allegations in the case, it is expected that the investigation would be conducted expeditiously.”

The court said the probe had been based merely on the opinion of experts and not on the factual aspects.

The court pulled up police for failure to investigate the motive of creating such a CD.

The court said that it was not the case of police that the CD came from thin air. It was an electronic document and it was prepared somewhere at some point of time.

“Was it to malign the complainant (Shanti Bhushan) and in turn thwart the civil society movement on lokpal bill which he had undertaken or was it a ploy to make the Supreme Court judge to recuse himself from the bench which was hearing the 2G spectrum case,” said CMM Yadav.

The court pulled up police for not taking voice samples of Mulayam Singh and Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh.

The court added that it found some substance in arguments of complainant that alleged conversations were copied from an earlier conversation.

Police in August 2011 sought the court’s permission to close the probe into Bhushan’s complaint alleging that the CD was doctored and seeking a probe into its authenticity.

The police sought the closure of the case saying there was no substantive evidence to prove the offence of forgery (doctoring of the controversial CD), as alleged.

Bhushan’s counsel submitted reports from two forensic laboratories - one in Hyderabad and another in the US - opining that the CD was doctored.