Delhi HC seeks copies of documents seized by CBI during raid on office of Delhi Secretary

The Delhi High Court directed the CBI to produce copies of the documents seized during the raid on Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar’s office on December 15..The said direction, as observed by the Bench, was necessary to understand the relevance of the documents to the CBI investigation..The order of Justice PS Teji came in the background of a plea filed by the agency that had sought a stay on a trial court order, which allowed for return of the documents seized during the controversial raid. The CBI Special Court had also passed some strict remarks on the manner in which the search was carried out..Today when the matter was called out, ASG Tushar Mehta for the CBI submitted that the Special Court had ruled the necessary documents as irrelevant and he was ready to show the Court on their significance to the CBI inquiry..Pointing to Senior Counsel Dayan Krishnan who appeared for the Delhi Government, Mehta said,.“If the concerned officer is indeed guilty of corruption, then even the state government would like that he does not get any undue benefits.”.Krishnan had earlier argued that the Delhi government should be heard before any interim order granting relief to the CBI was passed. He had also opposed the suggestion of CBI’s Standing Counsel Sonia Mathur who had requested the court to allow the agency to file documents in a sealed cover..Today during the course of proceedings, Justice Teji also observed that whether or not the documents had been wrongfully seized was not in the zone of consideration for the Bench..“At present, the only question is whether the documents should be returned or retained.”.After stating that one set of documents be given to the Delhi Government and one set to the Bench, Justice Teji said the agency could keep the originals with it so that the court “can look into it at any point during the arguments.”.The case will now be heard on January 29.