By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, April 11: The High Court of Meghalaya has started hearing the application of Law Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to quash the proceedings against her in the school teachers’ recruitment scam of 2008.
During the hearing on Friday, both counsels relied upon an application made by the prosecution before the court of the CBI Special Judge in Shillong in Special Case No. 2 of 2020 initiated against Lyngdoh, among others, accused in the recruitment scam.
This was further to Chief Justice Indra Prasanna Mukerji’s February 20 order observing that a large number of witnesses proposed to be produced for the prosecution should be suitably curtailed for a fair trial and justice.
“Of course, it goes without saying that such curtailment of witnesses would in no way sacrifice the sufficiency of proof to be adduced in this kind of a matter,” the single bench court of the Chief Justice said.
In the application, the prosecution decided to drop 317 of 492 witnesses and include six additional witnesses. The court was told that the application was allowed by the trial judge.
Earlier, 28 witnesses were examined. Under the circumstances, the trial is now ready to proceed, the court said.
The court, nevertheless, observed that there are pending applications, the foremost being an application by the accused under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to quash the criminal proceedings.
“If this application succeeds, then that would be the end of the trial. If it does not, the trial may continue. In my view, there is no point in further continuance of the trial at this stage before disposal of this Section 482 application. This court is not formally staying the trial but only requesting the learned Special Judge (CBI) at Shillong to adjourn further examination of witnesses for such period as he deems fit and proper to enable this court to conclude hearing of the said pending application and to pronounce judgment,” the court said.
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for the accused in the Section 482 CrPC case, was requested to continue his argument in the Section 482 application. Khurshid did not conclude the argument.
The matter has been listed on May 7-8.