The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has expressed displeasure over the slow pace of investigation into the government securities scam. The court has asked the state Cabinet to come up with a timebound programme to arrest the culprits and recover the money siphoned off by unscrupulous brokers and influential politicians heading co-operative banks in the state.
A division Bench of Justice J N Patel and Justice S G Mahajan, while hearing a public interest litigation on the co-operative banks scam, made it clear that the high court was ready to accord a fair opportunity to the state executive to prove that it had adequate infrastructure and necessary political will to protect larger public interest.
Making it clear that it had no intention to encroach upon the executive powers of the state, the high court granted an opportunity to the state government to demonstrate its political will.
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Earlier, the high court had asked Maharashtra additional chief secretary Asoke Basak, who is also principal secretary, home, to file a detailed affidavit in the matter. But the affidavit merely stated that the state had deployed adequate number of personnel to investigate the case.
The high court, expressing its displeasure, said the affidavit was very cryptic and did not throw any light on the investigations.
The documents placed on record by the state government did not assist the court in any manner to ascertain the pace of investigation into the scam, the court said.
Noting the serious allegations made by the petitioner that the state was protecting politically influential co-operative bank heads, the high court said it did not want to form any opinion at such an early stage. The court made it clear that it would like to give a fair opportunity to the state executive to take a final decision about a time-bound programme specifying the dates within which investigations would be complete and chargesheets would be filed.
"If the executive feels that it is unable to place such a time-bound programme before the court, we will infer that the state lacks the expertise, infrastructure and necessary political will to prosecute the culprits," the court noted.
The court further clarified that executive means the executive powers of the state exercised by the Cabinet and directed the additional chief secretary to place this order before the state Cabinet for deliberation and to take a decision. The high court asked the respondent state to place its decision on October 7, 2002.