VVIP Chopper Case: No trial in 11 years, co-accused passes away
VVIP chopper case passed away last month. Former IAF official Group Captain Navyath Santosh, who was charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with three other ex IAF officials, passed away on June 28. This was informed by his counsel, earlier this month, to the Delhi High Court.
It is pertinent to mention here that even after over eleven years a probe was launched into the ₹3,600 crore VVIP chopper case and even after over a dozen chargesheets filed both by CBI and ED, the trial is yet to commence.
According to the CBI, its investigation into the case is still not complete. The CBI had in December 2022 moved an application before the lower court seeking to segregate the trial in a bid to kickstart the trial. Vide the said application, the CBI had argued that the accused who have joined the probe cannot be denied their «right to speedy trial.» However, the application has not yet been decided. For the CBI moved the Delhi High Court in December 2022 challenging orders passed by the special CBI court permitting a co-accused to inspect documents not relied upon by the agency.
The agency had submitted that the special CBI Judge allowed the accused to conduct inspection of the «unrelied documents and statements of the witnesses in the Malkhana of the agency or some other place, while also mechanically allowing the supply of unrelied documents to a co-accused at a pre-trial stage.»The appeal filed in the Delhi HC stated that the agency is only required to produce before the court all material collected
