The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the State government on a petition filed by IAS officer Pradeep N. Sharma, seeking a CBI probe into the five cases pending against him and transfer of these cases for trial outside Gujarat.
A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha issued the notice after hearing senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Mr. Sharma, and senior counsel M.N. Krishnamani for Mr. Modi.
Mr. Gonsalves said Mr. Sharma was targeted from January 2010 and five cases were registered against him. While charge sheet was filed in one case, in four cases investigation was still on.
Mr. Krishnamani referred to personal allegations, insinuations and innuendos made in the petition and said these were intended to malign the Chief Minister. “These are reckless and frivolous allegations, which should be withdrawn or deleted,” he argued.
Justice Lodha told Mr. Gonsalves, “Character assassination is not permitted. Are you relying on these allegations? You can't do that. These are serious allegations.”
The Bench, in its order, recorded an undertaking from Mr. Gonsalves “that he does not wish to retain the averment made in “page F of the synopsis in its present form and the elaboration of that statement as contained in paragraphs ‘15 to 25' of the Writ Petition.”
The order said: “In this connection, he [Mr. Gonsalves] states that he will file a supplementary petition making suitable amendments to those averments, which tend to give unintended and wrong information in their present form. Mr. Gonsalves added that neither he nor the petitioner had any intent to make the faintest allegation of any personal impropriety against the Chief Minister.”
In his petition, Mr. Sharma alleged that Mr. Modi directed his ire at him because his brother, Kuldip Sharma, who happened to be the senior-most IPS officer in Gujarat, was instrumental as head of the State CID in cracking the Sohrabuddin-Kausarbi killing case, among other cases.
He said he was being harassed to settle personal scores with his brother and the State machinery was being abused by Mr. Modi and the former Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah.
His counsel said the harassment started after the Chief Minister apprehended that a video on his (Mr. Modi's) personal relations was in the petitioner's possession. He said Mr. Pradeep Sharma's house was raided by the police for the video.
At this, Justice Alam asked counsel, “How do you say that raids in your house were in connection with the search for the video? The search could be in connection with the cases also. It is a different matter that nothing was found in the searches.” Justice Lodha asked counsel: “You first prima facie show that there is a bias against you.”
Initially, the court was not inclined to entertain the petition, saying the petitioner should approach the Gujarat High Court.
However, Mr. Gonsalves insisted that since two very high constitutional functionaries, the Chief Minister and the State, were involved, he did not want to approach the High Court.
