Court raps officer for 'perfunctory' probe in coal scam case

A Delhi court has taken strong note of an investigating officer (IO) of a coal scam case against industrialist and Congress leader Naveen Jindal for filing "perfunctory" probe report and trying to "thwart the course of justice".

Special Judge Bharat Parashar directed the CBI to ensure that no attempt was made by any of its officers to misdirect the course of the probe and said a lot of court's time was lost.

"On account of the 'designedly' and 'deliberate defective investigation' carried out in the present matter, a lot of valuable time of this court has been lost. All this effort could have been easily avoided had the further investigation carried out diligently and truthfully.

"It is thus expected that efforts shall be made in future at the level of senior officers of CBI to ensure that no such attempt is again made by any officer of CBI at any level whatsoever to misdirect the investigation so as to not only delay but also thwart the course of justice," the court said.

The court noted that the 'further probe report' filed by the IO on January 13 last year was not only "per se perfunctory, cryptic and devoid of any reasoning at all", but also "did not seek to draw any conclusion be it in favour of accused persons or the prosecution".

It said the report could not be considered at all as a report of further investigation and needed to be simply brushed aside.

"It no where seeks to draw any conclusion of the facts and circumstances which came to the notice of IO during the course of further investigation," it said.

The case pertains to allocation of the Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.