landmark judgements on politicians coupled with corruption cases involving corporate honchos kept trial courts here busy in 2013, which also saw four accused in the December 16 gang-rape and murder case sent to the gallows.
The year, which began with setting up of fast track courts in the Capital to deal with sexual offences against women, saw all the twists and turns in trial proceedings in the December 16 gang-rape case which attained finality on September 13 with the judge ordering death sentence to convicts. Four-time former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his MlA son Ajay Chautala were convicted and sent to jail in a corruption case while Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Rasheed Masood achieved the dubious distinction of becoming the first lawmaker to lose his seat after Supreme Court’s judgement removed immunity for convicted elected representatives.
India’s top corporates, including Kumar Mangalam Birla, Naveen Jindal and Sunil Bharti Mittal faced the heat from CBI and the court in corruption cases like Coalgate and additional 2G spectrum scam. While CBI lodged separate FIRs against Birla, Jindal, also a sitting Congress MP, and others in Coalgate, Mittal bore the brunt with a CBI special court summoning him and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia as accused in the additional spectrum scam case during the NDA regime in 2002. Besides these, the trial courts also dealt strictly with the cases of wanted terrorists, including Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and top lashkar-e-Tayyeba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda, both of whom were evading arrest since decades.
The trial in the 2G case witnessed a new turn when the CBI moved a plea seeking to call Reliance ADAG chairman and his wife and others as witnesses to depose before it. Attorney General GE Vahanvati and former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia were among various high profile persons who were examined as CBI witness in the 2G case. Corruption cases, like Railgate, VVIP chopper scam, CWG scam, cash-for-vote scam, case involving Congress leader Jagdish Tytler and arms dealer Abhishek Verma were dealt with by the trial courts during the year.
Several cases were lodged against the Aam Aadmi Party, its convener Arvind Kejriwal and its leaders and a court here had framed defamation charges against him in a case filed by former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s political secretary for his alleged remarks against her during power tariff hike protests in October last year.
The sensational 2008 cash-for-vote scam case fell flat in a court which discharged Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, lK Advani’s ex-aide Sudheendra Kulkarni and three BJP leaders after observing that facts on record did not create sufficient grounds for proceeding against them. BJP leader Arun Jaitley’s sensational phone-tapping case, which had created a ruckus in the Parliament, saw the court making Delhi Police work hard in cracking it and leading to the arrest of some policemen and private detectives. Dhananjay Singh, sitting BSP MP from Jaunpur constituency of Uttar Pradesh, and his wife Jagriti were arrested here in connection with murder of their maid and the court repeatedly dismissed the bail pleas of the lawmaker. later on, Dhananjay was also arrested in a rape case lodged by another woman.
The alleged nexus among cricketers, bookies and most wanted gangsters Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel shook the cricketing fraternity with Delhi Police unearthing a racket in the IPl spot-fixing scandal case. The cricketers — S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan — were suspended after being arrested in the case. The ghost of the infamous 2000 match fixing case involving former South African captain Hansie Cronje came to haunt again with Delhi Police filing a chargesheet after 13 years of the scandal which had rocked the cricket world.
The 2008 Batla House encounter case, in which decorated police officer Inspector MC Sharma had died, came to an end in the trial court which sentenced suspected IM terrorist Shahzad Ahmed to life imprisonment. Shahzad, 25, was convicted in the September 19, 2008 encounter when a team of Delhi Police Special Cell raided the Batla House flat in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi following a tip-off that terrorists allegedly involved in the September 13, 2008 serial blasts in the Capital were holed up there.