New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed till further orders the Delhi High Court's order refusing to grant relief to Delhi Police against fast track trial court's order.
The order directed the police to hand over the copies of case diaries in Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, including the statements of the husband of the deceased, Rakesh Bhatnagar, recorded by the police to the accused persons.
The stay order was passed by a bench, comprising Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice D K Jain, when the matter was mentioned by the counsel for petitioner, Delhi Police, seeking urgent hearing of the case. The court fixed August 4 for hearing of the case.
Main accused in the case, former Inspector General of Police, prisons in Haryana, R K Sharma, had sought directions from the court for the copies of the case diaries containing the statements of Rakesh Bhatnagar, a senior journalist, in order to prepare his defence.
Shivani Bhatnagar, a principal correspondent of The Indian Express, was found murdered in her East Delhi flat on January 23, 1999.
R K Sharma, senior IPS officer, was arrested in 2002 when he was about to be declared an absconder by the court, as a result of which his entire property would have been attached.
The previous investigating officer of the case, Sukhvinder Singh, had stated before the court that he was not sure whether he had in fact recorded the statement of Rakesh Bhatnagar, but it was his impression that he did so.
The Delhi high court in its impugned order had left it to the trial court to decide whether the accused was entitled to have the copies of the case diaries. The trial court had already directed the police to supply the copies of case diaries to R K Sharma.
According to police, case diaries cannot be given to an accused in a criminal case as it is a privileged document and can only be given to the court.
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