No relief, court to hear Agusta discharge plea later

A special CBI Court on Tuesday refused to grant any immediate relief to AgustaWestland International Ltd, UK, which had petitioned the court seeking discharge from the '3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal scandal.

The court held that "there are allegations of conspiracy against accused persons including AgustaWestland International Ltd UK...The prosecution is still in the process of supplying documents to the accused".

The order further read "As per CBI, supplementary charge sheet against some of the accused is yet to be filed and they have applied for sanction to prosecute some public servants and sanction to prosecute is still awaited. Further investigation is still going on in the present matter".

The court said "in view of the given facts and circumstances, the application filed by AgustaWestland UK shall be considered at the time of hearing arguments on charge".

The UK-based company, charged by the CBI in the chopper deal, had filed an application for discharge mainly on the grounds that no case is made out against it and there is no sufficient ground for proceeding with the trial against the company.

The counsel for the company had contended that even if the material placed on record by the CBI is assumed to be true, the prosecution failed to make out the prima facie case against the company.

On the other hand, the CBI submitted that the application filed by the company is not maintainable as it , filed under Section 227 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), can be considered only when the prosecution opens its case at the time of consideration of charge.

The CBI, in its response, had stated that AgustaWestland has been arrayed as an accused in individual capacity separately on the basis of evidence collected during the investigation.

Adding that "further investigation is underway", the CBI had further stated in its response that "the company has refrained from either appearing in person and has left no stone unturned to challenge the judicial process of the court".

The CBI had filed its supplementary charge sheet in the case last September on 15 individuals and entities whose involvement came to fore for the first time. These included Rajiv Saxena, accused-turned-approver in the ED's case, who was made an accused by the CBI.

The agency had informed the court recently that the investigation in the case is "at its last stage on certain key aspects".