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High Court raps Govt for trying to
shield tainted SSP
WSN Network
Chandigarh:
Reacting
to the acquittal of a former discredited and disgraced SSP of Punjab
in a fake currency case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said
the Punjab government had no business to inquire into the matter
when the court was already seized of it and has told the state to
ensure that nobody approached the witnesses in the case. Intervening
in the G.S. Pherurai fake currency case, the
Punjab
and Haryana High Court has ruled that if anything happened to the
witnesses, the Punjab DGP and Home Secretary would be held
responsible.
During the
resumed hearing of the case, the Special Division Bench of Chief
Justice Vijender Jain and Justice K.S. Ahluwalia, took a serious
note of the setting up of a high-level committee by the DGP to
examine the conflicting versions of hostile witnesses. Earlier, it
was reported that several witnesses had resiled, following which the
Additional Special Judge (ad hoc), Ambala, had acquitted the former
SSP. The police had allegedly confiscated fake currency amounting to
Rs 5.20 lakh from Pherurai’s house in 2002. The Bench questioned as
to who authorised the state government to set up the committee to
reinvestigatewhy the witnesses had resiled. The Bench pointed out
that there was complete inaction on part of the DGP and that there
was total breach of rule of law in this case.
Meanwhile, R.C.
Sarwal, former manager, State Bank of Patiala, where the currency
was counted
and where it was
ascertained to be fake, submitted an affidavit reiterating that the
currency was fake. In his affidavit, R.C. Sarwal, former manager,
State Bank of Patiala, said G.S. Pherurai, along with his son (who
on the phone had identified himself as an SP), came to his residence
on June 14 this year and told him that “most of the witnesses who
appeared before the committee had stuck to their statements made in
the court and as such you also do the same.”
“On June 16,
Pherurai and his son, along with some persons, again visited my
house to put pressure on me,” Sarwal said. Earlier, speaking for the
Bench, Chief Justice Vijender Jain came down heavily on the Punjab
government for setting up the inquiry committee, saying that the
state
government had
no business to inquire into this matter when the court was already
seized of it. “Who told you to carry out the investigation? You are
trying to shield a person who is guilty ...,” Jain observed. Sarwal
further stated that he appeared before the committee set up by the
DGP on June 20 this year. “I had stood by my version (that the
currency was fake) in the court,” he said.
9
July, 2008
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