SC Allows Application For Impleadment of Chhattisgarh Govt. In CBIs' Plea For Transfer Of Trial In 2017 'Fake Obscene CD Case' Outside State

The bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan was hearing an application by former BJP leader Kailash Murarka, a co-accused and respondent no. 1 in the transfer petition.

Senior Advocate A. N. S. Nadkarni, appearing for Murarka, advanced, "Transfer is being sought saying that FIRs are being lodged against the witnesses. Why the prosecution is being initiated, only the state can answer"

"I have no objection if the state is heard. They can file their affidavit if they wish. I have no difficulty in the state being joined here. In fact, it strengthens my case", responded SG Tushar Mehta for the CBI.

"In such matters, the state is a party, the state has always been a party! Here, the IA for impleadment has been moved not by the state, but by an accused in the matter who is requesting that the state be joined as a party!", the SG stressed. He repeated that he is agreeable to the request.

Accordingly, the bench allowed the application by Murarka, respondent no. 1 in the transfer petition, for impleadment of the state of Chhattisgarh, represented by senior advocate A. M. Singhvi, as respondent party to the transfer plea.

In view of the incumbent Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel being an accused in the matter, the CBI had at the previous hearing on January 18 pressed before the Supreme Court the need for transfer of the trial in the 'fake obscene CD case' that had rocked Chhattisgarh politics in October 2017 to Delhi or at other place outside of Chhattisgarh.

A CD containing morphed pictures of the erstwhile PWD Minister Rajesh Munat (of the then BJP-led state government) began circulating in Raipur at the end of October 2017. The then-state government handed over the inquiry to CBI after Congress alleged a conspiracy. The current Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel, of the Indian National Congress, happens to be an accused in the case, in addition to former BJP leader Kailash Murarka, who was expelled from the party's Chhattisgarh unit after being named by the CBI in its chargesheet.

"It is not so that the CM has been made an accused because he is the CM. He was an accused even earlier and subsequently, became the CM...witnesses are being threatened. Some witnesses are from Delhi, some from Bombay, some from Chhattisgarh- it is impossible that they would travel to Chhattisgarh when one of the accused is the CM! The trial needs to be shifted to Delhi or any other place as long as it is outside of Chhattisgarh", urged SG Tushar Mehta before the bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan on Monday.

It may be noted that the State of Chhattisgarh had in December last year filed an application for impleadment in the matter as a necessary party.

"The state coming here strengthens my case! That the respondent-accused is seeking impleadment is in itself a good enough reason to transfer!", pressed the SG on Monday.

The bench proceeded to list the matter for hearing at a later date.

Issuing notice on the CBI's transfer petition, the Court had in October, 2019, directed that in the meantime, further proceedings in C.C. No.5465 of 2018, titled "Kailash Murarka & Others vs. C.B.I.", pending before the court of Special Judicial Magistrate (CBI Cases), Raipur, Chhattisgarh, shall remain stayed.

Murarka had in September, 2018 said that Chhattisgarh Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel, as he then was, has nothing to do with the case and that he is completely clean. Baghel was sent to judicial custody after the chargesheet was filed, but a court granted him bail.

The other accused in the case are senior journalist Vinod Verma, Bhilai-based businessman Vijay Bhatia, Vijay Pandya and Rinku Khanuja. Verma and Bhatia are out on bail, while Khanuja, a Raipur-based automobile dealer, committed suicide in 2018"

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