A division bench of Justice S N Jha and Justice S J Mukhopadhyay made the observation while reviewing the progress of the investigation into the bitumen scam cases.

The judges said, ``Even during the recent raids at the residence of a few bitumen accused, reports came in a section of the press that the agency sleuths recovered half-burnt documents from the residence of one of them.''

The inquiry into the bitumen cases was handed over to the investigating agency over two and a half years ago and the investigation is still on.

The CBI joint director U N Biswas, who is in charge of the probe, informed the court that steps had already been taken to speed up the investigation.