“Otherwise, we will pass a judicial order on the appointment of public prosecutors,” a Bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu said, while accepting the request of Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to grant the agency three weeks to appoint public prosecutors.
The Bench, which also included Justices Kurian Joseph and Amitava Roy, said all Vyapam cases that have now risen from 185 to 212 will be looked after by the CBI, irrespective of the fact that in 78 of them the state’s SIT/STF have filed charge-sheets.
The issue of shortfall of CBI sleuths to take over the investigation was also raised like in the previous hearing but the bench told Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi that “you do it at the earliest as in the last 10 days nothing has happened”. Rohatgi also sought three weeks to come back with a clear cut proposal on filling the vacancies of investigators in CBI, which requires a mandatory training of at least two years.
“You <g data-gr-id="52">need trained</g> investigators. It takes two years to train them and I don’t have a pool of investigators,” Rohatgi told the Bench, which posted the matter for further hearing on September 11. He told the Bench that when the matter was first heard in the Apex Court, there were 185 FIRs registered in the scam, which has now gone up to 212 and there are chances that the number would rise further.
At this point, the Solicitor General said though the Attorney General was speaking about the rise in the number of cases, he is not giving the agency the required staff. “The AG is not giving us (CBI) staff,” Kumar <g data-gr-id="54">said,</g> while expressing difficulty in taking over all cases by the CBI. The AG was also representing the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which looks after the filling up of vacancies in the CBI. Taking note of shortfall of CBI sleuths to probe the matter and inadequate number of public prosecutors for conducting the trial of the cases, the bench wanted to know the view of senior advocate KTS Tulsi who said the agency should consider one FIR as lead case to unearth the larger conspiracy to file a consolidated <g data-gr-id="47">charge-sheet</g> instead of separate charge-sheets.
Tulsi, along with senior advocates Vivek Tankha and Indira Jaising, was appearing for various people, including senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who had sought CBI probe in the scam and alleged deaths connected with it. He gave <g data-gr-id="45">example</g> of 1993 Mumbai blasts case, in which <g data-gr-id="46">large number</g> of accused were tried together after consolidated charge-sheets were filed.
Further, Tulsi referred to the Apex Court verdict, which declined to separate the trial of BJP leader Amit Shah in Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati cases on the ground that both were allegedly part of <g data-gr-id="43">same</g> conspiracy.
The AG, who was appearing for Madhya Pradesh, opposed the view saying that Mumbai blasts <g data-gr-id="41">was</g> the result of the single conspiracy by <g data-gr-id="42">same</g> set of people, which is not the case in the Vyapam scam.
The Solicitor General also supported the Attorney General saying the number of accused persons
were far more in the instant scam and their number ran into thousands.
Earlier on the issue of <g data-gr-id="36">shortfall</g> of CBI sleuths, Rohatgi had said though CBI has its own cadre, 50% of the personnel were <g data-gr-id="38">deputationists</g> and now there has been a decline in the <g data-gr-id="39">deputationists</g> also.
SC takes note of CBI’s persistent plea on lack of manpower
The constant refrain of premier probe agency CBI that it faces "severe <g data-gr-id="101">man-power</g> deficit" was taken note of on Monday by the Supreme Court, which sought specific information including the cadre strength and its last revision before intervening to resolve the vexatious issue.
"We will examine whether we need to intervene to direct revision of your cadre strength," a Bench of Justices TS Thakur and C Nagappan said while hearing petitions relating to chit-fund scam cases.