A sessions court here today pulled up a magisterial court which had refused to take cognisance of the charge sheet against Zee Group Chairman Subhash Chandra and two editors in the case of their alleged extortion bid from Naveen Jindal's firm.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Dharmesh Sharma observed this while allowing a revision petition filed by Delhi Police saying Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) view of the applicability of penal provisions in the case shall have no effect.
"Accordingly, the revision petition is allowed and the impugned order dated September 13, 2013 is set aside or rather modified to the effect that the state may conduct or embark on further investigation through a police officer not below the rank of an ACP and file final police report as expeditiously as possible and observations made by CMM on the applicability or otherwise on ingredients of the penal provisions shall have no effect....," the ASJ said.
The police had filed a revision plea against the CMM's order in which the magisterial court had ordered further probe by saying there were "glaring and material lacunae" in the case with respect to the investigation.
The sessions court, in its order, said"....Bare perusal of impugned order in toto demonstrates that the CMM exceeded the jurisdiction vested with him at the stage of considering the police report/charge sheet filed in terms of section 173 (2) of the CrPC by venturing to decide on merits in a half-hearted and lopsided manner, thereby arriving at a finding on law and facts without considering the entire material on record."
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police had last year filed a charge sheet against Chandra, Zee editors Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia under various provisions of the IPC, including sections 384/511 (attempt to extortion), 420/511 (attempt to cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence).
Dealing with the sections invoked against the accused, the CMM had said the offences of both extortion and cheating cannot be simultaneously made out.
