New Delhi, Jul 2 A Delhi court on Thursday rejected the CBI's plea seeking further custodial interrogation of Haryana cadre IPS officer Deepak Gahlawat arrested in an alleged Rs 3 crore bribery case linked to the agency's probe into a fake drug manufacturing racket.
The 2012-batch IPS officer, posted on central deputation in the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), was produced before Special Judge Sushant Changotra around 4 pm after completion of his one-day CBI custody.
The agency sought an extension of his custody, saying it needed to unearth the larger conspiracy, ascertain the source of funds and its beneficiaries, besides confronting him with other co-accused persons.
The public prosecutor alleged that during the interrogation, the accused remained "evasive", misled the investigation and failed to explain several financial transactions.
After detailed arguments, the judge noted that the accused had a conspiratorial meeting with other co-accused persons on May 14, and asked, "Is there a record of the financial transaction after the alleged meeting?
"N Raja (co-accused) came to meet him on May 14. Is there any transaction after that?" he asked.
He again posed a question to the prosecution: "You are saying he (accused) gave contradictory and evasive replies and illogical explanations (during custodial interrogation). Contradictory, evasive replies in which sense?"
The judge then asked the prosecutor to submit the record of financial transactions and noted that there were no transactions after the so-called "conspiracy meeting" on May 14.
"If you are relying upon a document and there is no such document, what does it say about your conduct? You take your time but provide the relevant document," he said.
The prosecutor then reiterated that the investigation was at an initial stage, the accused had to be confronted with other co-accused and other pieces of evidence, and the larger conspiracy had to be unearthed.
The judge then said that he had exhaustively dealt with the issues on Wednesday and the prosecution had been unable to validate its claim seeking custodial interrogation.
"Why are you seeking police custody? Only the aspect of police custody needs to be explained," he said, adding that the prosecution could not make the case a "never-ending process".
After reserving the order, the judge passed a brief order after around half-an-hour, saying, "The order for police custody is rejected."
He directed that the accused be sent to 14 days of judicial custody.
Earlier on Wednesday, the court had allowed one day's custodial interrogation of the accused after the premier investigative agency sought his five-day custody.
The judge had also deprecated the conduct of the CBI's investigating officer (IO) after posing certain queries related to the probe.
Gahlawat's arrest stems from an FIR registered by the CBI on June 8 against Delhi Police Crime Branch Inspector Pradeep Singh, alleged middleman Rajkumar and businessman N Raja.
Last month, the agency arrested Singh, Rajkumar and five others in a trap operation, recovering Rs 25 lakh as trap money and another Rs 90 lakh besides incriminating documents.
New Delhi, Jul 2, 6:00PM A Delhi court on Thursday rejected CBI's plea seeking further custodial interrogation of Haryana cadre IPS officer Deepak Gahlawat arrested in an alleged Rs 3 crore bribery case.
The agency sought an extension of his custody saying it needed to unearth the larger conspiracy, ascertain the source of funds and its beneficiaries, besides confronting him with other co-accused persons.
"The order for police custody is rejected," the judge said.
He directed that the accused be sent to 14 days of judicial custody.
A detailed order is awaited.
The 2012-batch IPS officer, posted on central deputation in the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), was produced before Special Judge Sushant Changotra around 4 pm.
Earlier on Wednesday, the court had allowed one day's custodial interrogation of the accused after the premier investigative agency sought his five-day custody.
The judge had also deprecated the conduct of the CBI's investigating officer (IO) after posing certain queries related to the probe.
"The answer to queries posed to the IO today makes it apparent that to date no effort has been made in the investigation as to whether any public servant who was posted in CBI was ever approached by accused Deepak Gahlawat or he had made any attempt to exercise his personal influence over such public servants," the judge said.
He said that the IO did not make any endeavour to ascertain whether such a person existed or about the identity of this public servant.
"The conduct of the IO in this respect and the responses given by him today are totally unfathomable," the judge said.
