Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 10: Government today said that it has no objection in case the investigation of the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) scam is handed over to any other agency.
The statement on behalf of Government was made by the State counsel advocate Asif Bhat before the Division Bench of Chief Justice N P Vasanthakumar and Justice B L Bhat here today.
The advocate submitted before the bench that it is admitted that the agency is not investigating the matter on war footing but on snail’s pace as the records pertaining to the case have damaged in last years floods. “As the seized record was in voluminous paper books and big portion of the records have damaged. But agency is serious to take the probe to its logical end and so far 40 persons have been examined by the agency”, he stated.
State counsel submitted to the court that let the matter be handed over to some other agency and let some time frame be granted for concluding the probe into the matter so that final report be submitted before the competent court of law.
Petitioner counsel stated before the court that main accused (Saleem Khan and Ahsan Mirza) are on pre-arrest bail obtained by them from District Court and police is not interesting in contesting it.
He further stated that police was not giving correct information about the embezzlement of amount which is about Rs 40 crores and in the last status report filed by IGP Kashmir only Rs 10 crores have been mentioned as such the report of police is not correct.
Senior Advocate R A Jan appearing for Mirza stated before the bench that the PIL has been filed in August 2014 which is about after two of registering of FIR and it seems the exercise has been done in afterthought and in such eventuality the instant PIL faces latches. He also emphasized on earliest conclusion of the probe whether by the present investigating agency or by other.
Advocate Javed Iqbal representing President of the Association (Dr Farooq Abdullah) pointed out before the court on maintainability of the instant PIL. He raised a question on filing of the PIL by two persons. Referring judgments of Supreme Court with regard to filing and maintainability of PIL , he said that there are numerous judgments from Supreme Court and our High Court also which laid down certain guidelines and rules while filing any kind of PIL before the court.
Court observed “our main concern is delay in investigation, if investigation is not concluded then court can refer the investigation into the matter to other agency”.
Advocate Iqbal with these observation submitted to the court that it is courts discretion whether to handover the investigation to some other agency or to keep the same with present investigating agency. He submitted to the court that the present agency has to some extent taken the probe forward and appropriate would be to direct them to conclude the probe in some time limit rather giving the case to some other agency.
Court hearing the arguments of both parties for more than half a day reserved its order in the case.
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