New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought CBI's reply to a journalist's plea against framing of charges by a trial court against him for allegedly hatching a criminal conspiracy with government officials to obtain secret papers in 2000.
Justice A K Pathak sought CBI's reply by February 12, 2013 on a plea by news portal tehelka.Com's former Editor (Investigations) Aniruddh Bahal against a fast track court's order of October 16 that framed charges against him and others under the Official Secret (OS) Act.
Filing the petition through counsel Pramod Dubey, Bahal said the trial court has failed to consider the fact that there is no material to frame charges against him under various sections of the OS Act and the IPC for conspiracy.
"The judge failed to appreciate that there is no material on record to provide any ground - let alone sufficient or reasonable grounds, for framing charge against the petitioner.
"The order framing charges against the petitioner (Bahal) is bad in law, improper and deserves to be set aside," Bahal's plea said.
The CBI has filed charge sheet against two Tehelka reporters, Mathew Samuel and Bahal, two home ministry officials, Thomas Mathew and Neeraj Kumar and Buffalo networks, which owned the website, for alleged violation of the Official Secretes At.
According to CBI, Kumar, Mathew, Bahal and Samuel entered into a criminal conspiracy to obtain secret documents, which were exhibited on tehelka.Com on October 9, 2000.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 21:18