The JVM can claims it as major breakthrough when the Assembly tribunal hearing the MLAs’ alleged defection case cut down the long list of witnesses considerably and directed all the six legislators to turn up for cross examination. Hearing the case on Friday, Speaker Dinesh Oraon nodded to the contention of the prosecution and brought down the list of witnesses to merely 13, dropping as many as 43 names.
“The decision is significant considering the time the case has consumed thanks to the defence side.
The Speaker looked convinced to our argument that there is a deliberate ploy to delay the case by naming 78 witnesses when all of them were reading out identically scripted statements. Now, only 13 persons including the MLAs in question will have to appear before the Court,” said RN Sahay, lawyer from the JVM’s side.
Sahay in his appeal to the tribunal pressed hard to conclude the case sooner since the matter was languishing before the Speaker for more than three years.
“To this the Speaker himself mentioned that the Chair has come under question for unable to preventing the deliberate attempts from the defense side. We hope that the testimonies would conclude in the next two-three dates and any decision is expected by January,” added the lawyer.
The Speaker has fixed December 8 as the next date and chances are that some of the MLAs—namely Randhir Singh, Amar Kumar Bauri, Alok Chaurasia, Navin Jaiswal, Ganesh Kumar Ganjhu and Janki Prasad Yadav—would turn up as witness. Besides the six legislators, seven other witnesses named from Daltonganj MLA Alok Chaurasia have been shortlisted for recording their statements.
An official of the Assembly handling the case said that after the conclusion of testimonies the process of their cross examination would commence. “It should not take much time from now, provided they (defence) do not bring in some other delaying tactics,” said he.
Moreover the case would not be determined even then since the decision of the Speaker’s court can be challenged in the High Court and when only about two years tenure of the incumbent Assembly is remaining, the fate of the former JVM legislators, switching to the BJP soon post-elections in 2015, is not going to be decided so easily.