2G case: Court imposes cost on senior adv for irrelevant ques

Special CBI Judge O P Saini imposed the cost on senior advocate R N Mittal after disallowing many of his questions, posed to Joint Wireless Advisor Ram Jee Singh Kushvaha, who is working with the DoT's Wireless Planning and Coordination wing.

Terming the posers as irrelevant, the court imposed the cost of Rs 100 each for two questions asked by Mittal, the counsel for Kusegaon fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd directors Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal, facing trial in the case.

The court took the strict major when Mittal, while cross-examining Kushvaha, told him, "I put it to you that the fact of a meeting being held on August 22, 2008 in the chamber of the then Secretary (T) (accused Siddharth Behura), as stated by you in your examination-in-chief, was recorded by the IO in your statement on February 4, 2011."

The court imposed the cost as CBI prosecutor A K Singh too objected to the question.

"Question disallowed, being contrary to the law (and) for the aforesaid reasons, (he is) subjected to the cost of Rs 100," the judge said.

The court disallowed Mittal's another question that the witness did not tell the investigating officer (IO) in his first statement on January 22, 2011 that when he came to his office on August 25, 2008, he learnt that he was transferred.

"Question disallowed, being contrary to the law as a statement cannot be contradicted with non-statement and indirectly, by this process, a statement made to the police is being attempted to be brought on record," the court said. The recording of Kushvaha's statement concluded today. (MORE)