The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the CBI to submit a timeline of events relating to the ongoing investigation into a bribery case involving the agency’s former special director Rakesh Asthana and the need for sending Letters Rogatory (LRs) to various countries.
Justice Mukta Gupta said the document should also include when the requirement of issuing LRs came to the knowledge of the investigating officers and details of the CBI officers who had spent the last 2-3 months on it.
The High Court questioned the CBI for not sending the LRs till now even though it had passed in January the order dismissing the pleas of Mr. Asthana and two others seeking to quash the FIR. The High Court told the agency to file the document in a sealed cover.
Hearing on April 23
The court listed the matter for April 23 for further hearing on CBI’s application seeking more time to complete the probe in the case lodged against Mr. Asthana, DSP Devender Kumar and middleman Manoj Prasad.
Letters Rogatory are a formal request from a court to a foreign court for some judicial assistance.
On January 11, the court had granted 10 weeks to the probe agency to complete its investigation.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vikramjit Banerjee and advocate Rajdipa Behura, representing the CBI, sough six months time to complete the investigation.
When the court observed that six months was too much, the CBI counsel suggested granting of four months time.
The High Court in January had disposed of three petitions of Mr. Asthana, Mr. Kumar and Mr. Prasad, by a common order in which CBI was directed to complete investigation into the case within ten weeks.