HC notice to CBI on Bhatnagar's plea

new delhi: the high court on thursday issued notice to the cbi on a petition filed by former defence secretary s k bhatnagar, an accused in the rs 64-crore bofors payoff case, challenging the separation of his trial in the case from that of italian businessman ottavio quattrocchi. justice s k agarwal, after hearing bhatnagar's counsel dinesh mathur, asked the investigating agency to file its reply by august 3 to the petition challenging the may 25 order of the special court trying the bofors case.the trial court had ordered that the trial of quattrocchi and former chief of swedish company a b bofors, martin ardbo, be separated from that of bhatnagar, the three hinduja brothers, former bofors agent win chadha and the company. mathur contended that the trial court's order ran contrary to its earlier order by which it had ordered consolidation of the two chargesheets filed by the cbi in october 1999 and october 2000. he further said that the trial court order was contrary to the provisions of criminal procedure code (crpc) as his client had not been given a chance to reply to the cbi application seeking splitting of the trial. the trial court had said that as there was no reasonable chance of quattrocchi, who is facing extradition proceedings at kuala lumpur, and ardbo being brought to india to face trial in the case, the trial of others should move ahead. mathur also questioned the special judge's conclusion that there was no possibility of immediate extradition of quattrocchi, saying ``he is technically in the jurisdiction of the trial court as he had been arrested by the malaysian authorities on the letters rogatory issued by it''. once the chargesheets of all accused persons had been clubbed together by the special court, it could not again order that the same be separated as there is no provision for it in the crpc, mathur contended. ``moreover, the cbi had not, interalia, indicated the provision of law under which it had moved an application for splitting the trial,'' he said. mentioning that while filing the chargesheet against the hinduja brothers, s p hinduja, g p hinduja and p p hinduja, the cbi itself had requested the court for consolidation of the case, he asked how the agency could now take a u-turn. ``from the cbi request for clubbing the chargesheets, it was evident that they wanted a single trial in the case and their request was accordingly accepted by the court,'' he said, adding that under the provisions of crpc there has to be a common trial for an offence involving criminal conspiracy. the cbi had moved an application for separation of the trial in the case following a high court order in april on the applications of the hinduja brothers, who had sought permission to go out of the country. the high court, while rejecting their plea, had directed the cbi to expedite the trial and had asked it to request the special judge to allow separate trial of those accused who had appeared before the court.