Indian Express

Abhishek Verma: Supreme Court no to SIT

Utkarsh Anand Posted online: Thu Jan 31 2013, 00:55 hrs
New Delhi : Underlining that the CBI is already carrying out a comprehensive probe, the Supreme Court has refused to set up a special investigation team (SIT), comprising officers from CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income-Tax department, and monitor investigations against controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma.

A Bench led by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir remained unimpressed with the arguments asserting a need for an SIT to look into the charges against Verma, particularly those levelled by his former New York-based business associate C Edmonds Allen, and finish the probe in a time-bound manner.

Taking up a writ petition filed by Virender Singh Rawat, the Bench was of the opinion that the progress of investigation and records of other cases pending as well as decided by the apex court demonstrated that several agencies were already involved in the investigations and that an intervention by the court was not required at this stage. It also disapproved of the specific contentions regarding monitoring the probe in different cases to ensure that it was impartial and is completed within a time-frame.