Court disallows opening of Telgi's CDs, next hearing on Aug19

Pune, July 25 (UNI) The Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court today disallowed the opening of CDs in court as the prosecution failed to produce all the 14 CDs, instead it could produce only eight of them in connection with the multi-crore fake stamp paper scam.

Seeking further directions from the Bombay High Court in the matter whether the eight CDs should be opened, special Judge Chitra K Bhedi, while accepting objections from the defence, observed that ''it was unfair to open eight CDs when the rest are missing.'' She pointed out that as per the Bombay High Court orders, 14 CDs were to be opened today. However, the prosecution produced only eight, which was vociferously opposed and objected to by the accused former Samajwadi Janata Party MLA Anil Gote, Telgi's lawyer Rashid Kulkarni and suspended Assistant Commissioner of Police M C Mulani.

Advocate Milind Pawar, representing Telgi, submitted a copy of acknowledgement to the court from former Special Investigation Team (SIT) chief S K Jaiswal of having received 14 CDs from the Karnataka government. Copies of the acknowledgement were also circulated in the courtroom and among the media.

Gote said that the missing CDs may contain vital information in respect of powerful personalities, which could mean ''managing and tampering'' of evidence merely to shield them.

He said that most of the main accused were free on bail, while he has knowledge of 3,887 STD calls and 11,000 local calls made from the jail, containing a total of 110 hours of taped onversations, between prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi and others, which had been handed over to Jaiswal.

Two other objections and anomalies were that the prosecution had failed to comply with the High Court's orders of producing 14 CDs for opening. Besides, the dates of transcript and the CDs were suspect as the CDs were submitted on July 26 last year, while the transcripts were dated later.

The packed court applauded the decision of disallowing the unsealing of CDs by Justice Bedi.

Public Prosecutor Raja Thackeray, after being asked, agreed to submit an affidavit of having only eight CDs in the sealed packet.

However, Judge Bedi, while accepting the defence argument, again referred the matter for guidance and further orders from the Bombay High Court seeking whether she should have the eight CDs opened. She has fixed the next hearing for August 19.

Meanwhile, Advocate Pawar said that they may move an application for a judicial inquiry into the matter of the mysterious disappearance of six CDs.

UNI DWN/SP SSS SB ND2214