Cops pulled up for not verifying controversial CD

The city police was on Tuesday pulled up by a Delhi court for not recording the statements of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh to verify if a controversial CD, purportedly having their talks with lawyer Shanti Bhushan, was authentic.

The city police was on Tuesday pulled up by a Delhi court for not recording the statements of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh to verify if a controversial CD, purportedly having their talks with lawyer Shanti Bhushan, was authentic.

HT Image

"You (police) interrogate him (Amar Singh) for the 2008 cash-for-vote case. And during that you ask him informally if he had spoken to Shanti Bhushan, to which he tells you that Shanti Bhushan had come to his place and had spoken to Mulayam Singh on phone from there. And you are satisfied with this," chief metropolitan magistrate Vinod Yadav remarked to the counsel for police.

"You feel no need whatsoever of recording his statement formally. How will you prove all this unless you record his statement? The investigation is neither here nor there. You can claim anything but how will prove it?," asked Yadav.

The court made the remark as counsel for Shanti Bhushan, Ajit Singh contended that police should record the statements of Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav to prove its claim that Amar Singh had confirmed the part of conversation between him (Bhushan) and Yadav.

The police sought the closure of the case saying there was no substantive evidence to prove the offence of forgery (doctoring of the controversial CD), as alleged.

Bhushan's counsel also submitted to the court reports from two forensic laboratories, one from Hyderabad's Truth Lab and the other from an US lab, opining that the CD was doctored and sought further investigation.