DDA scam: Yet another judge wriggles out
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 22
For the third time in a week, a Delhi High Court judge declined to hear the bail pleas of three key accused in the DDA land scam. After Justices RC Chopra and BN Chaturvedi had refused to deal with the petitions on May 16 and 20, respectively, Justice OP Dwivedi today declined to hear the applications. The petitions will now be put up before some other appropriate Bench by the Chief Justice.

Yesterday the bail pleas of Vice Chairman Subhash Sharma, Commissioner (Land Disposal) Anand Mohan Sharan and Director (Land) Jagdish Chander could not be heard in the high court as their applications had not been listed.

After two judges had refused to hear their bail petitions within a span of five days, the cases were to be referred to the Chief Justice on May 20, who was to assign them to an appropriate Bench for hearing yesterday. However, the petitions were not listed in the court’s list of business.

On Friday last, Justice RC Chopra had, without assigning any reasons, refused to hear the bail applications. Justice BN Chaturvedi also refused to hear the bail pleas without assigning any reasons on May 20. Today, too, Justice Dwivedi gave no official reason for declining to hear the petitions but it is understood that he declined because he is related to one of the counsels appearing for the accused.

Justice Chopra had issued a notice, returnable on May 16, to the CBI on petitions filed by Sharma on May 6, Chandra on May 13 and Sharan on May 2. He had also directed the Investigating Officer in the case to be present in court on that day with all relevant records.

Former Delhi High Court judge Shamit Mukherjee, another key accused in the case, has already been granted interim bail. On May 5, Justice Chopra rejected Mukherjee’s regular bail application but granted him a month’s interim bail from May 7 when his CBI custody was to end.

The judge had hoped that the investigating agency would not press for further police remand unless the same was absolutely essential and trial court also would be equally careful in considering the request for further police remand on the basis of the material placed before it.

On May 7, the CBI, however, moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the High Court’s order. While the Apex Court rejected the CBI plea, it said the order of the High Court would not come in the way of a further police remand or its extension thereof, which could be considered by the trial court independent of the High Court’s order.

On the same day, the lower court extended the former judge’s police remand till May 12.

Finally, on May 12, the special trial court granted one-month interim bail to Justice Shamit Mukherjee, so that he can look after his ailing wife and old mother.

Mukherjee was arrested on April 30 by the CBI on charges of corruption, bribery and sleaze.

The CBI has filed four cases since March 26 relating to corruption in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the country’s biggest urban development agency.

Apart from Mukherjee, the CBI had arrested 14 others, including Subhash Sharma, Dharamvir Khattar, suspended DDA Commissioner (Land) Anand Mohan Saran, DDA Commissioner (Planning) Vijay Risbud, DDA Director (Planning) Jagdish Chandra, suspended private secretary to Vice Chairman Ashok Kapoor, employee of DLF Universal Ltd Ajay Khanna, Pradeep Kapoor, Anil Wadhwa, Ved Prakash Kaushik and S Minocha of APY Hoteliers and Developers, property dealers GR Gogoi and Ravinder Taneja and Director of Modern School Education Society (Shalimar Bagh) Amrit Lal Kapoor.

The names of Sharma and alleged middleman Khattar figure in all the four cases.