Key Points
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Thursday stayed an order by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court refusing to accept calls intercepted by the agency during a preliminary enquiry (PE) as evidence.. The case relates to an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer and several others who are accused of helping a businessman evade taxation..
In his order on 15 May, CBI special judge Ashwini Kumar Sarpal had held that only evidence gathered after the registration of the FIR would be admissible during the trial..
A detailed hearing on the order is pending following the high courts stay...
During the arguments, it came to light that all the calls the agency was relying upon as evidence were intercepted during the PE period between 18 March and 15 April 2015..
The judge further raised question on the credibility of intercepted calls by noting that the CBI hadnt produced the review committees order confirming the home secretarys order, and therefore, an adverse inference can be drawn that the order was not confirmed...
