New Delhi: A lawyer, representing two
absconding accused in a CWG-related corruption case, on Thursday
landed himself in a tricky situation for seeking recall of a
court order that declared them proclaimed offenders, but got
out of it by telling the court that he did not remember what
he told it minutes ago.
Advocate Ravi Ranjan had moved the court on behalf of
Anil Madan and Purushottam Dev Arya, the two promoters of
Faridabad-based Gem International, seeking recall of its order
that declared them proclaimed offenders.
But as Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh had a couple of
days earlier taken up their applications, duly signed by the
duo and attested by the oath commissioner, he summoned both
the Oath Commissioner and the counsel to ascertain if the
accused had personally signed the documents.
Appearing today before the court, responding to its
summons, Oath Commissioner Meena Sharma testified before it
that the two accused had indeed been to her office in the
Patiala House court premises to sign their affidavit, which
was attested by her later.
Asked by the judge, she also produced before him her the
register that the two had purportedly signed for buying
stamp papers for making their affidavits.
As the judge quizzed the young lawyer too on whether
the duo had come to the court to sign various documents,
including their `vakalatnama` (a client`s authority letter to
a lawyer to represent him or her) accused, the advocate said
that the accused had not come to the court premises or met him
for preparation of their documents.
At this the judge, referring to his `vakalatnama` to
represent them and their signature on it, asked him to explain
how they signed the authority letter if they had not met him.
Advising the advocate to think twice before telling
anything to the court, the judge asked him to go out for a
while and decide as to what he wanted to tell it.
Sometime later, the counsel was summoned back to have
his statement recorded before the judge, who told him to speak
with due caution.
At this, the advocate pleading that he was new in the
profession, said he did not remember what he had told the
court minutes earlier.
The judge eventually let off the advocate and the oath
commissioner after recording their statements.
Both Madan and Arya are the promoters of Gem
International which was a sub-contractor for `Swiss Timing`,
which was awarded the Rs 141 crore contract to install the
Timing-Scoring-Result system for the CWG 2010. The contract
given at an exorbitant cost had resulted in a loss of over Rs
95 crore to the exchequer.
They were declared proclaimed offender on May 23 after
CBI told the court that they were intentionally absconding
and avoiding the judicial process.
PTI
