The Bombay High Court on Friday slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its shoddiness in summoning industrialist Nusli Wadia in a 25-year old case of his murder conspiracy.
"No efforts have been taken by you in procuring this witness (Mr Wadia) on the point on evidence. CBI can't say it made a mistake. You wanted to prove the motive. You took effort to get another witness when the best witness was available to you," Justice Revati Mohite-Dere said.
Pointing at serious lapses by the agency during the trial, she further observed, "If this is the condition in this case, one shudders to think what happens to the common man."
Mr Wadia alleged collusion between the CBI and the prime accused Kirti Ambani, who is a senior executive of Reliance industries reporting directly to Mukesh Ambani. He said that though an accused who was the prospective shooter, had told the trial court time and again that he had recorded his confession before the Mumbai Police, the CBI took no effort to get a copy of the confession.
"The CBI is not a caged parrot, it is a suspicious parrot, especially in such cases," senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Mr Wadia, alleged.
The CBI claimed that it summoned Nusli Wadia several times between 2009 and 2013 in the case of his murder conspiracy. But couldn't answer why he wasn't summoned after April 2013 when he wrote showing his willingness and availability to depose.
The court expressed dissatisfaction with the agency's answer.
It was hearing a petition filed by Kirti Ambani, challenging the trial court's order allowing Mr Wadi to depose in the case. Mr Ambani has claimed, allowing Mr Wadia to depose at this stage will mean a retrial, and will thus work against the interest of the accused.
The arguments in the matter got over on Friday. The court is slated to on pronounce its judgement on July 10.
