Cases against Haryana MPs, MLAs: Pace of investigations not satisfactory, says HC

Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 12

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Just about eight months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court made clear its intent to fast lane the cases involving sitting and erstwhile parliamentarians and legislators of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the Bench on Friday made it clear that the pace of investigations in Haryana was not satisfactory.

Referring to a report submitted by the state, the Bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Sandeep Moudgil asserted its perusal indicated “some progress” in the investigation.

The Bench added affidavit dated September 14 filed by Haryana Inspector-General of Police, Administration and Law & Order, stated final reports had been submitted in 30 out of 44 cases after completion of the investigation since May 26. Challans had been submitted before the trial court in seven cases out of these.

In another seven cases, cancellation reports had been submitted. Besides this, untraced reports had been “written” and the final report would be submitted to the competent court of law in 16 cases, the Bench was told.

“It has further been pointed out that there are 17 more cases of sitting/former MPs/MLAs in total, in which investigation is still in progress. A perusal of the said affidavit would indicate that the speed at which the progress of the investigation is going on is not satisfactory,” the Bench added.

Before parting with the case, the Bench asserted it would not further delve into the details in the matter as of now and would wait for further report. The observation came after State Additional Advocate-General Ankur Mittal submitted that an Inspector-General of Police was personally monitoring the investigations. Mittal also assured the Court that further efforts would be made to conclude the same at the earliest. “Sincere endeavour would be made to conclude the investigations within six weeks and submit the report in this regard,” he added.