Courts Told To Expedite Raos Trial

The Supreme Court yesterday asked the special courts dealing with cases against former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, godman Chandraswami and other prominent personalities to proceed with the trial with utmost expedition and conclude them within three months.

The court also added a note of caution. It underlined that no occasion should arise for an impression that the publicity attaching to these matters has diluted the emphasis on the essentials of a fair trial, including the presumption of innocence of the accused unless found guilty at the end of the trial.

The division bench consisting of Justice J S Verma and Justice B N Kirpal made these observations in a six-page order in which they closed the proceedings in three cases