HC pulls up CBI in Sibu case

New Delhi, July 30 (UNI) The Delhi High Court again pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation today for not closing the apparent loopholes in the Sibu Soren case.

The Division bench headed by Justices R S Sodhi and H R Malhotra is hearing the petition by former Union Minister Sibu Soren opposing the life sentence awarded by lower court for killing his private secretary Shashinath Jha.

The court wanted to know as to how the investigating agency came to know the place where Jha's body had been laid buried.

When the CBI counsel Sidhartha Luthra informed the court that the agency came to know about the body through a source, the court questioned about the identity of the source. Mr Luthra, however, emphasised to keep the source a secret.

It apparently irked the court opening a barrage of questions embarassing the counsel by asking ''What makes the source too secret to tell, particularly when such incidents always become talk of a small village?'' The judges then advised the counsel to prepare better for the case. They also said, ''try to protect the depositions of your own witness. If it crumbles, the charges may not stick'', they said.

The CBI recently appointed Mr Luthra when the high court had expressed exasperation for the shoddy investigation in Sibu case.

UNI