On Italian marines' issue law, home ministries not on the same page

NEW DELHI: The law ministry has proposed that National Investigation Agency ( NIA) should send a Letter Rogatory (LR) to Italy to get testimonies of four Italian witnesses in the Marines case, much against the home ministry’s proposal to straight-away approach the SC.


The NIA Director General Sharad Kumar met the home minister on Tuesday amidst little agreement in government over the matter. A government source said the Ministry of External Affairs in not in the favour of dragging the Italian government into litigation once again given the diplomatic aspect of the relationship between both countries and in this backdrop the law ministry has come up with a view that a LR be sent to Italy for the requisite information.

ET had earlier reported that the home ministry had suggested to the law ministry that the government should approach the Supreme Court (SC) over the refusal of four Italian marines to come and appear as witnesses before the NIA which was delaying the ongoing murder probe against two of their compatriots here. In March, SC pressed for the case to be expedited and asked for a special court to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis after the charge-sheet is filed. But the NIAis nowhere close to filing a charge-sheet.