The Court of Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon has declined the plea of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) not to consider testimony presented by its former member and party general secretary Sunil Sahu in the MlAs’ defection case. The Speaker while hearing the matter on Wednesday rejected the suggestion from the party on the grounds that the leader is no longer associated with it.
“The lawyer of the JVM argued that since Sunil Sahu is not with the party he should not be considered as a witness in the case further and the testimony given by him be withdrawn. However, the defense lawyer objected to it and the Speaker also upheld the objection, saying that Sahu would be cross examined in the due course of time,” said a senior official of the Assembly present at the court room.
Sahu was one of the witnesses presented by the JVM in the Speaker’s court who had recorded his statement. Moreover, the senior party leader, in the meanwhile, resigned from the party and had also alleged that JVM principal general secretary Pradeep Yadav hurriedly closed his testimony and did not inform him about this.
Further, the hearing also saw pleas requesting the court to merge two separate complaints filed by Babulal Marandi and Pradeep Yadav. “The Speaker said that the matter would be considered later. On the requests from new lawyers appointed by the legislators in question demanding copies of the testimonies given by witnesses so far, the Speaker ruled that it is possible only after authentication of the statements recorded is done,” added the official. Moreover, cross examination of JVM legislator Prakash Ram was done along with authentication of couple of testimonies.
The Speaker also directed the lawyers to apprise the High Court about progress made in the case so far. The HC had passed an observation and asked for fixing a timeframe to settle the matter. As many as 14 hearings have taken place since the case came before the Speaker and the task of cross verification is almost complete.
“The Speaker was of the view that under the rule concerning membership disputes the court will have to provide adequate opportunity to all the aggrieved parties and stressed that the court is doing exactly that,” added the official. The HC is scheduled to hear the case on October 3.