The court's warning came during the cross-examination of former Telecom Secretary D S Mathur, a key prosecution witness in the case, by defence counsel S P Minocha, who asked him if he had gone through his statement made in the court on April 9 before signing it.
"If such questions are persisted to any further and are ruled to be irrelevant, they shall be subject to heavy cost as this is leading to wastage of time of the court," Special CBI Judge O P Saini said.
Minocha, who was appearing for former Telecom Secretary and co-accused in the case Siddharth Behura, also asked Mathur whether he was hearing the dictation by the judge while his statement was recorded in the court.
The court, however, disallowed this question saying it was "totally irrelevant".
The court had earlier also warned various defence counsel for asking "irrelevant questions" from prosecution witnesses on more than one occasions.
During his cross-examination, Mathur said he did not remember if he had told the CBI's investigating officer (IO) that former Telecom Minister A Raja, a key accused in the case, had committed "irregularity" in writing two letters to the Prime Minister on November 2, 2007 by not adopting the official procedure.
"I do not remember if I told the IO that irregularity was committed by A Raja in writing these two letters to the Prime Minister by not adopting the official procedure.
"The fact of A Raja committing any irregularity is not mentioned in my aforesaid statements made to the IO. It is wrong to suggest that I have made improvements in my statement in the court on this point, on asking by the CBI," he said. (More) PTI ABA RKS
