Fear of SC deadline behind CBI’s charge sheet

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the multi-layered Vyapam scam, filed an incomplete charge sheet in Bhopal on Monday as it had to meet the Supreme Court’s deadline of October 31. Not doing so would have invited contempt from the apex court.

Since the CBI was ill prepared for the task, of the 734 people accused in the case, charge sheet waspresentedagainst only 490 of them, spread over 2,000 pages.

Until the last moment, CBI was expecting it would get additional 15 days from the apex court, the reason behind its summons to the accused under Section 160 of CrPC, which is for recording statement, and not under Section 170 CrPC, which is used when a charge sheet is being presented.

“When the CBI did not get the extension they told the accused that charge-sheet would be presented against them in court, creating panic among the accused. Many ran away from the court premises as they had not come prepared to apply for bail, while others who had the resources somehow arranged for lawyers and applied for bail,” said advocate Dinesh Tiwari.

The level of unpreparedness wasevidentfromthefactthatthe CBI presented the charge sheet onlytothejudgeanddidnothave copies for the lawyers.

“I don’t even know what exactly my client has been accused of, which is highly unprofessional on part of the CBI,” said advocate Sandeep Gupta, who is representing several accused in the scam.

“Because of these lacunae, seven accused who were arrested managed to get bail despite objections from the CBI while the remaining 81 who did not appear before the court were given a fortnight to apply for bail,” Gupta added.

An accused said, “I had come fromAmbikapuronlytoregister my statement, but the CBI suddenly told me the charge sheet was being presented and that I was being arrested. I had to arrange advocate and money for the bail. I had to furnish a bond of ₹1 lakh to get the bail.”

Admitting there were major problems related to the way the charge sheet was submitted, a CBI officer who did not want to be quoted explained, “We need more time because we are doing a thorough job in (filing) the charge sheet. We are establishing all links of the accused, like who met whom, where, when and the exact role of each accused. This takes time.”

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