Amar clears Cong,SC says wasted time

The Delhi Police had taken charge of the probe on Singh’s complaint about the phone taps and nabbed four persons,including a then contract employee of Singh’s phone service provider,Reliance Infocomm,for “hatching the conspiracy”.

A chargesheet was filed in February 2006 while the trial court took four years to frame the charges against the accused only in 2010. Till date,only one witness has been examined. The next date on the trial is February 15.

Singh had in the meantime moved the Supreme Court,alleging that his right to privacy has been invaded. He named the Congress as one the entities responsible. The court had then imposed a restraint on publication of his telephone intercepts.

On Wednesday,with Singh doing an apparent U-turn,it was the court’s turn to react with a question: “What’s happening here? We judges are already overworked…. How long have the courts been labouring over your case. Now look at the way you have treated the court….”

“The court has become a victim of your affidavit,” Justice Ganguly said.

“Is it appropriate for this court to spend hours together on your petition based on your fabricated evidence. Why should the court interfere for a person who himself is not clean?” the Bench asked.

It then told Singhvi to read from Singh’s original petition the allegation the latter had then leveled against the party.

Singhvi read “I am a target of attack by leaders of Congress party” but paused at this juncture while Justice Ganguly went on to complete the lawyer’s sentence with “including their spokesperson”.

Singhvi,who is representing Singh as counsel,is also a spokesperson for the Congress.

The senior advocate defended his client by contending that the latter’s allegations were based on his “knowledge” then,but today he was convinced that the Delhi Police investigation has not left a speck of doubt about the guilty persons involved. Investigations had revealed that documents seeking interception of Singh’s calls allegedly received by Reliance Infocomm were forged.

The court directed Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium,appearing for the Delhi government,to file the entire series of orders with dates of adjournments sought by both prosecutors and the defence lawyers in the case to find out the exact cause for the four-year gap between filing of the chargesheet as way back as in 2006 and the starting of the trial in February 2010.

It also wanted to know the number of cases handled and those which are still pending with the trial judge who is hearing the Amar Singh tapping case “just to see how many cases are loaded with one court”.

But he plays down move
Expelled SP leader and Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh on Wednesday played down his decision to withdraw his petition against top Congress leaders in the phone tapping case.

“There is nothing surprising in the move. I had filed the petition on the basis of a forged document that suggested that my phone was tapped at the behest of the government. But,when the Attorney General and Solicitor General apprised the court that the said order of phone tapping was found to be forged and the guilty person was being acted against,the facts on the ground has changed.”

“One must remember that I took the name of leadership when I was in Samajwadi Party,whose relationship with the ruling party is well known. Even after that,when the police are acting against the forged letter,there is little for me to blame political leadership,” Singh told reporters.