Sacked SC staffer arrested for posting wrong info on website sent to 3 more days' custody

A Delhi court Monday extended by three days the custodial interrogation of a sacked Supreme Court staffer, arrested for allegedly posting wrong information on the apex court's website related to a case involving Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana sent Tapan Kumar Chakraborty to further custody after the Delhi Police told the court that the accused was to be confronted with various documents and his "sustained custodial interrogation was required".

"In the interest of justice, I am of the opinion that police custody is required to be extended," the judge said.

The court, meanwhile, sent the second accused -- Manav Sharma -- to the judicial custody for two weeks, noting that he was not required for further custodial interrogation.

The accused were arrested on April 7.

After the January incident, they were dismissed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

The duo had allegedly uploaded an apex court order, which said Ambani's presence in a case had been dispensed with, despite the court ordering that he be present for the next hearing, police said.

The top court had sacked the two officials for tampering with its January 7 order on the issue of personal appearance of Reliance Communication Chairman Anil Ambani in connection with the contempt matter filed against him by Swedish telecom group Ericsson.

Justice Gogoi has passed directions to terminate the services of the two court officials who were responsible for noting the judge's orders and getting them uploaded on the apex court's website.

Justice R F Nariman, who was dealing with Ambani's case, had forwarded a complaint to the CJI that the order in the matter for the presence of the contemnor was not properly found in it.

The order dictated stated that the personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is not dispensed with, but it found the word 'not' was missing.

The discrepancy in this regard was brought to the notice of the bench on January 10 by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was appearing for Ericsson.

Taking note of the fact, an order was passed by the Chief Justice on administrative side dismissing the two employees.