The Hindu : National : Unusual situation: Judge

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Wednesday, Jun 01, 2005

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National

Unusual situation: Judge

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: While dealing with the petitions of the three Hinduja brothers and A.B. Bofors seeking discharge in the Bofors gun deal case on the ground that the CBI did not have originals or authenticated copies of the documents , Justice R.S. Sodhi said he "is faced with a situation which is a first of its kind."

Mr. Justice Sodhi said the situation had arisen out of the statement made by the prosecution in the trial court that "the relevant material documents are not available in original and no copies thereof duly authenticated in accordance with the Indian Evidence Act are available."

The Judge further said: "It seems to me that these documents are not proved by satisfactory secondary evidence and will not be ever proved at the trial. It will be a cruel joke on the accused to expose them to a long and arduous trial and waste public time and money, which will be totally out of proportion to the results to be achieved.

``In fact, nothing will be achieved. In the present petitions, I am faced with a totally different situation which is somewhat unusual and is almost the first of its kind which I am dealing with in my judicial career."

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