‘CBI’s charge sheet against Deshmukh meets all criteria’

Mumbai: A local court while refusing default bail to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case has said the Central Bureau of Investigation’s charge sheet met all requirements.

Courts cannot be too technical while entertaining bail pleas for not filing the charge sheet within the stipulated period, the special CBI court said on Monday, a detailed order of which was made available on Tuesday.

Judge SH Gwalani had rejected the default bail pleas of Deshmukh and two others in a corruption case. The three sought default bail on the ground that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had not submitted its charge sheet within the 60-day mandated period and that the charge sheet it did file had been incomplete.

The pleas also claimed the CBI had not submitted relevant documents along with the charge sheet and that those were submitted after the mandated time period. 

The CBI had opposed the pleas and argued that it submitted the charge sheet in the mandated time period.

As per section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the charge sheet in a case ought to be filed within 60 days from the arrest of the accused. If not done, then the accused can seek default bail under provisions of CrPC Section 167.

However, the court said the charge sheet filed on June 02 by the CBI complied with all the requirements of law and hence was a proper report, filed within the period specified under CrPC Section 167.

The judge said not filing of the documents and statements of witnesses along with the report does not make it an incomplete charge sheet.

Since the requisite report under Section 173 of the CrPC was filed within time, the right to seek default bail never accrued in favour of the applicants (accused), the court said.