CBI not to seek phone-tap report, docus from state in Anil Deshmukh probe till June 19

MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Thursday adjourned to June 18, the hearing of two petitions filed by the Maharashtra government and its former home minister Anil Deshmukh against a first information report (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the agency extended till June 19 its assurance not to seek a phone-tap report and certain other documents from the state.
The HC bench of justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar at a hearing that barely got off with senior counsel Rafigue Dada for the state mentioning preliminary facts, adjourned the matters after two intervenors raised preliminary objections to its maintainability. They were given time to file affidavits to place their objections in pleadings for the state to then reply to.
Advocate Subhash Jha appearing for one intervenor said a quashing plea against a portion of an FIR is "unheard of" and said only "extremely urgent" matters were being heard now, and the state’s plea cannot be considered in that category. The bench asked him to make his submissions on merit of the case.
Advocate Jaishri Patil, who said her complaint to the Malabar Hill police citing ex Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh’s letter against Deshmukh formed the basis of the CBI FIR, repeatedly said she objected to the maintainability of the petition and said Sachin Waze, the police office whose reinstatement the FIR seeks to probe is a necessary party to the petition too and ought to be added as a party and state is "suo motu working on his behalf".
Senior counsel Dada, ever composed, said such serious allegations are being made against it and should be placed on oath, to enable a reply.
For CBI, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said he too questions the maintainability of the state’s petition but would make his submissions after the state completes its. "We also have a serious objection to state’s petition which appears to have been filed to preempt the investigation in the FIR," he said, also adding that on June 18, he expects the matter to go on and not get adjourned any further.