Prez nod sought to prosecute ministers
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Dinesh Chand Gupta sought the permission of Prez Pratibha Patil to prosecute the Union defence and home ministers, secretaries in the home, defence, shipping and transport ministries for their alleged failure in preventing the Mumbai attacks, report K S Tomar and Sachin Saini.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Dinesh Chand Gupta on Saturday sought the permission of President Pratibha Patil to prosecute the Union defence and home ministers, secretaries in the home, defence, shipping and transport ministries and the National Security Advisor for their alleged failure in preventing the Mumbai attacks.
The judge, who took suo motu cognisance of reports on the attacks, also sought the permission to prosecute the chief of the Navy's southern command and the chief of the Coast Guard.
He also approached the Maharashtra Governor S.C. Jamir for prosecuting the state home minister, the state principal home secretary, the Mumbai Police Commissioner and the Marine Police chief.
The judge delivered the order on January 1, but released it on Saturday. He found these people prima facie guilty of "dereliction of duties at their end" as public servants, which led to the Mumbai attack.
Saying there was “sufficient material” on record to take cognisance against them, the court sent a copy of the order to the President and the Maharashtra Governor on January 2.
Rajasthan high court lawyer Ajay jain said the judge had the powers to take suo motu cognisance under section 190 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
He said “the judge has charged these persons under sections 119,123,166 and 35 of the Indian penal code. And if convicted, the maximum punishment could be of up to 10 years.”
Jain said the same judge had taken cognisance against bollywood star Shilpa Shetty and Hollywood actor Richard Gere two years go for vulgarity in public place. The case was later stayed by the Supreme Court.