The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the transfer petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2017 criminal trial involving Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and others as accused in a sex CD case.
The bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and M.R. Shah said that it will hear the matter for final disposal in the second week of February.
Senior Advocate Atmaram Nadkarni appearing for one of the accused today informed the bench that an application for impleading the state as a party has been filed.
Appearing for the CBI, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the witnesses in the present case were being threatened. Moreover, the accused is somebody who is the chief minister of the state.
He further submitted, “Some witnesses are from Delhi, some from Bombay and some from other place. We want the transfer of investigation to any place apart from the state of Chhattisgarh.”
Earlier, on October 21, 2019, a bench led by former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had stayed the ongoing trial before the Special Judicial Magistrate (CBI) Court.
The CBI had registered a case in September 2018 against Baghel, the then Chhattisgarh Congress president, on a complaint that he had allegedly tried to frame then state PWD minister and BJP leader Rajesh Munat in a fake sex CD case.
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