CBI to move SC in Bargari case

Chandigarh, November 20

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has decided to move the Supreme Court against the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that had upheld the notification of the Punjab Government to withdraw the investigation into the Bargari sacrilege case from the central agency. They have sought permission from the Central Government to file petition in the apex court in the case.

The Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Mohali, has directed the CBI to file a status report in the case by the next date of hearing, which has been fixed for January 8, 2020. The court also dismissed the application filed by former Rampura Phul MLA Harbans Singh Jalal who had sought to be impleaded as a party to the case.

In a submission before the Special CBI Court, Mohali, today, the CBI sought that all protest petitions, applications, replies filed by the state government and others in the case be kept in abeyance till the petition filed by the agency was adjudicated by the apex court.

The CBI submitted that the impugned order, passed in January, was contrary to the law propounded by the Supreme Court.

The legality of the state government’s notification of September 2019 for withdrawal of the three cases associated with sacrilege-related violence from the CBI was challenged before the High Court, which had ruled that the chain of events showed that these were inextricably linked and thus the court did not feel the necessity to interfere in the decision of the state government to withdraw investigation from the CBI or to set aside consequent notifications.

The CBI has contended that under the law as settled by the Supreme Court, once the Central government transfers the investigation of a case to the CBI by issuing a notification, the state government cannot withdraw the consent. The law laid down by the apex court is binding on all courts in India. The Punjab Government had issued a notification in 2015 following which the CBI had re-registered cases. — TNS