SC stays proceedings against Arun Nehru in pistol deal case

The Supreme Court today stayed till further order the proceedings pending in a trial court in a corruption case relating to purchase of pistols for the Army in 1998 in which former Union minister Arun Nehru and others are accused.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir stayed the proceedings before the trial court which had fixed March 30 for commencement of arguments on charges in the case.
Nehru had moved the apex court against the order passed by the Delhi High Court which had refused to stay the proceedings.
Senior counsel Vikas Singh and advocate Sandeep Kapur, appearing for Nehru, told the apex court that the order on cognisance by the special CBI court was passed "in a casual and perfunctory manner" as the sanction to prosecute Nehru, a public servant, was not taken before proceeding against him.

"It is pertinent to mention that the bar to taking cognisance under section 197 CrPC is operative even after a person ceases to be a public servant by retirement or otherwise and as long as the act complained of is related to his duties while he was a public servant sanction ought to be sought against the said person," Nehru, in his petition, said.
According to the FIR registered by CBI against Nehru, who was then a Minister of State in the Home Ministry, he along with two other senior officials had allegedly caused a loss of Rs 25 lakh to exchequer in a pistol deal with Czechoslovakia in 1988.

The case dates back to 1985-86 when B P Singhal, the then additional secretary in the Home Ministry, and A K Verma, then director in the Home Ministry, allegedly conspired with Nehru, the then Minister of State (Internal Security) for Home Affairs, to execute the deal.
However, proceedings against Singhal and Verma have abated as they have died.
CBI had alleged that Nehru had ignored the guidelines for conducting the evaluation of 9 mm pistols.