Coal scam: CBI's plea to place additional documents opposed

CBI's move seeking permission of a special court to place on record several additional documents in a coal blocks allocation case was today opposed by accused firm Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) and two of its directors.
The defence counsel argued that CBI was trying to fill its lacuna by moving the application for filing additional documents after framing of charges against the accused.
Advocate Rajiv Mohan, appearing for accused firm JIPL and its director R C Rhungta, said CBI's plea showed that certain documents were now being sought to place on record as they were sought by his client earlier under CrPC.

Regarding a prosecution witness's statement which the agency now wanted to bring on record, the advocate said the veracity and credential of the testimony becomes doubtful as it was recorded two years ago and CBI wanted to place it on record now.
His contention was supported by accused director R S Rhungta's counsel Harsh Sharma who also questioned the authenticity of prosecution witness Rajeev Kumar Chouraria's statement sought to be placed on record by the probe agency.
"Prosecution says the documents were filed earlier due to inadvertance but no reasons have been explained by it in the application. CBI has not mentioned as to how these documents are relevant to the case," he argued.

Senior Public Prosecutor A P Singh, appearing for CBI, objected to the defence's counsel allegation made against the agency and said the witness' statement was not fabricated and the court should take note of it.
He added that the witness' statement was duly recorded by the investigating officer earlier and the documents sought to be placed on record were already relied upon by the agency and these were only the photocopies recovered during search.