Srinagar, May 14: In a petition filed by Shopian lawyers charge-sheeted by the CBI for their alleged involvement in the rape and murder case, the High Court Friday directed the CBI  to file objections within two weeks for dismissing the chargesheet against them.
 Muhammad Altaf Mohand and Sheikh Mubarak have filed a petition before Justice Hasnain Masoodi seeking dismissal of the charges in the case titled CBI v/s Dr Nighat and others pending before the CJM.
 On June 18, 2009, the petition said, the SIT had recorded the statements of witnesses in the court of CJM Shopian. Soon after certain police officers were arrested allegedly for destroying evidence in the case. On September 15, 2009, after the CBI took over the case, it arrested two witnesses Abdul Rashid Pampori and Ghulam Mohi-ud-din for questioning. On October 26, 2009 the CBI moved an application before CJM seeking permission to record further statements of the duo. However, the Court rejected the plea on the ground there was no provision either under section 164 A or under any provision of CrPC  for recording further statements. However, the CBI filed a revision petition before the Sessions Court Shopian, which set aside the CJM’s order and allowed the CBI to record the statements which were eventually recorded.
 In view of the legal position, the petitioners said the second statement was not admissible nor could be read against them.. “In the present case the statement of the witnesses was not material for purpose of the FIR No. 112/09, but in fact was an evidence created for an offence which was not registered against the petitioners and other accused persons,”  they said, adding the two witnesses had not named them for threatening them to make false statements and as such offence under section 195-A was not made out.
 They said there was nothing on record to show that they had conspired to defame the police or security forces. “The post mortem was conducted on May 30, 2009 when the petitioners were nowhere in the picture. The first statement of the witness was recorded on June 18, 2009, when postmortem report was with the police, thus there was no question of entering into any conspiracy with the doctors by the petitioners,” the petition said, adding that under section 239 of CrPC the petitioners can not be charged jointly with the doctors against whom creation of false evidence charge has been levelled.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 14 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 14 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 15 May 2010 00:00:00 IST