‘Handed over Shukla report to CBI’

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Thursday informed the Bombay high court (HC) that the documents related to IPS officer Rashmi Shukla’s report, sought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its investigation in corruption allegations against former home minister Anil Deshmukh, were handed over to the central agency.

The counsel for the state informed the bench that they would consider the additional letter from CBI. The central agency, meanwhile, sought adjournment of the hearing for two weeks, which the court allowed. Thereafter, the court said it was an issue between CBI and state, and hence should be resolved among themselves rather than coming to the court.

The division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice NJ Jamadar, while hearing the application by CBI seeking directions to the state to handover documents pertaining to its probe in the April 21 FIR, was informed by senior advocate Rafiq Dada that as per the assurances given by the state in the previous hearing, documents sought by the central agency had been handed over to them.

Dada further informed the HC bench that he had received a letter from the central agency dated August 31 and that he would require time to go through it. He further added that if what was being sought by CBI in the new letter was covered by the undertaking given by the state, they would hand it over as well.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh for CBI informed the court that they had received some documents from the state government but requested the bench to keep the application pending for two weeks so that CBI was able to ascertain whether the order of the bench was complied with or not.

After hearing the submissions, the bench observed that the investigation into the FIR filed by CBI on April 21 was their exclusive jurisdiction and as the state had given the documents, CBI will have to check whether they are the proper documents, the court cannot intervene further.