New Delhi: The two former employees of the Supreme Court arrested for allegedly fudging an order in favour of industrialist Anil Ambani were not alone in the conspiracy, the Delhi Police Crime Branch has claimed.
In their submission in a Delhi trial court opposing the bail petitions of the two men, the police claimed that “other persons have also misused their position in the office to give undue advantage to the ‘same person’”.
The document, which has been accessed by ThePrint, suggests that these others were also Supreme Court employees like the jailed duo — former court master Manav Sharma and former assistant registrar Tapan Chakraborty.
According to the Delhi Police Crime Branch document, they arrived at the conclusion following Chakraborty and Sharma’s interrogation.
In the submission, the Crime Branch said that as an employee in “Section-X” of the Supreme Court, Chakraborty was well aware of the working and the loopholes of the process involved in the uploading of documents/orders passed by the apex court.
“Role of some other staff of the Section-X of the registry office is still under probe (sic),” the Crime Branch claimed, informing the trial court that more documents from the Supreme Court registry office were needed to “confront” other staff and “unearth this deep-rooted conspiracy”.
Also read: SC order ‘fudged to help Anil Ambani’ case back under scanner in CJI Ranjan Gogoi crisis
The case
In January, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice R.F. Nariman and Justice Vineet Saran had rejected Ambani’s plea for exemption from personal appearance in the contempt of court case stemming from Reliance Communications’ failure to pay back Rs 550 crore to Swedish telecom major Ericsson. The court refused to allow the exemption, but the order uploaded on the website suggested otherwise.
The discrepancy was noticed by Ericsson lawyer Dushyant Dave, and the corrected order uploaded three days later.
After the discrepancy was discovered, Nariman announced in court that he had instituted an inquiry into the episode. The inquiry revealed that court officials had allegedly taken down the order in shorthand and later transcribed it and hence the mix-up was “not accidental” but “deliberate”.
Sharma and Chakraborty were sacked by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in February after it was first alleged that they had tampered with the court order, and subsequently booked for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
The duo was arrested earlier this month. On Monday, they were produced in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Manish Khurana at the Patiala House Courts in the capital where their judicial custody was extended yet again, this time by 14 days. The accused will now be produced in the court on 13 May.
The family members of the suspects were present in court, where Chakraborty, in tears, sought the judge’s permission to speak to his wife, while Sharma wished to speak to his brother.
Chakraborty also cited his “medical history of hypertension” to request that he be allowed to sit in a room outside the jail, saying he found it difficult to breathe in a closed space. He also sought access to his spectacles, which he said had been denied to him despite multiple requests. The judge forwarded his request to the jail superintendent.
Also read: On harassment charge, CJI Gogoi did what he accused CJI Misra of — betray natural justice
Named in sexual harassment saga too
The allegations against the duo — explosive in their own right — took a more sinister turn when their names cropped up in a lawyer’s affidavit alleging a controversy to unseat CJI Gogoi.
Earlier this month, a former Supreme Court employee wrote to 22 judges of the apex court, alleging that she had been sexually harassed by Gogoi while she was posted at his home office.
Soon afterwards, lawyer Utsav Bains claimed in an affidavit before the Supreme Court that the allegations stemmed from a larger conspiracy against the CJI, and that they were the handiwork of certain “judgment fixers” looking to avenge Gogoi’s crackdown on them. Sharma and Chakraborty are among those named in the affidavit.
Dushyant Dave, Prashant Bhushan and Kapil Sibbal are termed as fixers in SC by many.
Larger conspiracy in courts is a formidable attack on the pillar of democracy.. Money,media,& mussel power..is the prime weapon of big criminals ,in our country,who are also in top position…can do all illegal/notorious works..Honest political party should come forward to resist all..which is very tough..due to pet/paid media
Does late Dhiru Bhai Ambani was named listed in defaulters of bank loans as he created state of art oil refineries from scratch? Did he paid back all his loans taken in the process and obtained No Objection Certificate? Did his debt was added to the rising peak of NPAs , compete to equalize the peak of mount Everest?
What do you want people r with government is democratic and those who r not with them r anti naional?. If this is the way to judge the nationality. Then God save us.
If this is the rule of law, God save us from these devils who do not know what is right or wrong. If anybody who is true indian can understand whom they r supporting. As all of you know if r with the government you r deshbakht and against that you r deshdrohi. As I am a simple man who do not want be tagged as a culprit how can I forward my views as an individual who do not know wnat to harraass.
The very basic principle of people’s faith in the administration justice has been badly damaged in this episode,what will be the fate of independence of judiciary in our country is a big question now.
Thanks to the great judges our country had produced since independence & those who personally suffered also to save independence of our judicial system.The treasure of faith they created among people at large of this country ,will ultimately be saved,we hope.
In minds of the public of India, the reputation of Judiciary, which already was low, is daily sinking to new lows, with daily revelations of Corruption, nepotism, crony selection and massive bribes. After formation of fresh Govt. 2019, first task must be a total real time radical reformation in Indian Judiciary.
APPLICATION FOR EXUMPTION IN COURT APPEARANCES IS VERY COMMON IN TICH TO POOR ONES FOR MANY PERSONAL REASONS. NOW CONVRRTING ORDER OF JUSTICE TO ANOTHERWAY I THINK IS KARASTAN OF ADM. PEOPLE AS MENTIONED.
AND TELL ME WHY AMBANI A. WILL DO TBIS KIND OF USELESS THING. AND WHY HIS LAWYERS WOULD ADOPT SUCH CHEAP TEVTICS?
MAY B ITS TO INVOLVE BIG NAME AMBANI OR JUSTICES.
OR BENIFIT OF DOUBT B GIVEN MAY B INTERPRETATION MISTAKE. CLETICAL ERROR.
NOTHING BIG DEAL.
This time I think judiciary will take notice to conspirators who try to interfere the common as well as the higher authorities for their productive actions and to ruin their reputation. Pakistan effectively involved in this type.
first of all, sharma and chakraborty had been caught by a bench of nariman and some other judge.
So its not gogoi alone who is a one man army in keeping the supreme court clean.
There are a fair number of reputable judges in the supreme court. Its not a district court where a lot of judges have doubtful reputations.
If you know one… kindly come forward and help the judiciary.
Nothing will happen. Ambani’s are protected species.