HC closes plea for probe by nat’l agency into DRDO case

Cuttack: The Orissa high court on Friday closed the PIL seeking a probe by a professional national investigation agency into the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) espionage case. The two-judge bench of Chief Justice Subhasis Talapatra and Justice Savitri Ratho said it is “useless to continue” with the PIL after commencement of trial in the case. The state police had nabbed five Intermediate Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, employees on September 13 and 16 in 2021 for allegedly leaking classified information from the defence installation. The state CID-crime branch had taken over the investigation when HC lawyer Arun Kumar Budhia filed the PIL on September 28, 2021. The PIL centred around the contention that it may not be possible on the part of the state crime branch to investigate into the case as the nature of offence is very sensitive and of high magnitude. The petitioner expected the espionage case to be probed by a central agency like CBI or NIA or SIT for better and faster results to secure the interest of the nation, including Odisha. Senior advocate Gautam Acharya made the submissions on the petitioner’s behalf.The bench closed proceedings in the PIL after an affidavit filed by the state CID-CB was placed before it on Friday. The affidavit categorically stated that after completing the investigation, the chargesheet was filed leading to framing of charges in the case. The trial in the case has commenced in the court of additional district judge, Balasore, and three witnesses have already been summoned.The bench said from the affidavit filed by the state CID-CB, it appears that the investigation is complete. The investigating officer had also received cooperation from all central agencies.“In view of the development that has taken place after filing of the PIL was filed, we think the purpose of the petition is over and it is useless to continue with the proceedings,” the bench observed while closing the PIL.
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