The Hindu : Front Page : Trial proceedings against Hinduja brothers stayed

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Saturday, Feb 05, 2005

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Trial proceedings against Hinduja brothers stayed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 4. The Delhi High Court today stayed the trial proceedings against S.P. Hinduja, G.P Hinduja and P.P. Hinduja in the Bofors gun deal case.

Justice R.S. Sodhi stayed the proceedings when the Additional Solicitor-General, B. Datta, sought time to ascertain "whether the relevant documents placed on record in the case are capable of being considered for the purpose of framing the charge."

Mr. Justice Sodhi said: "It is made clear that pending proceedings in this Court, further proceedings before the trial court shall remain stayed."

He also issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on an application by A.B. Bofors (since renamed Kartogen Kemi Och Forvaltning, A.B.) seeking dropping of cheating charge against it as well.

In his submission, Mr. Datta submitted that he wanted to take instructions as to whether any action had been taken pursuant to a letter received from the Federal Department of Justice and Police, Sweden.

He further submitted that it was necessary to inform this court whether the documents placed on record were material which could be considered for the purpose of framing of the charge as they would be capable of being converted into evidence in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act.

The Hinduja brothers through their counsel, Ram Jethmalani, have sought quashing of the cheating charge against them in the case, submitting that the CBI would not be able to prove it, as it did not possess the originals of the relevant document to sustain the allegation. Mr. Jethmalani submitted that the documents sought to be relied upon by the prosecution were not material which could be considered for framing of the charge since they were incapable of being converted into evidence at the present stage. He said that the charge which was sought to be framed on the basis of the documents must be capable of being proved either by production of the originals of the documents or by producing secondary evidence in accordance with the provisions of Section 78 (6) of the Indian Evidence Act.

The Hinduja brothers had also moved the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) here, seized of the matter, last year, seeking a direction to the CBI to produce the originals of the documents related to the Bofors gun deal brought from Sweden. They had argued that they wanted to inspect the originals of the Swedish documents to prepare their case for defence in the trial.

The investigating agency had submitted that the documents filed in the court were copies of the originals certified by a Swedish court. However, the CMM had disposed of their (Hinduja brothers) plea saying that it would be decided at the time of the trial.

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