Shillong, Aug 6: The High Court of Meghalaya has directed the trial court to speed up the proceedings regarding the murder case of the maid at the residence of former DGP WR Marbaniang.
Advocate Nitin Khera appeared on behalf of Marbaniang, and the CBI was represented by Deputy Solicitor General of India N Mozika, assisted by R Fancon.
The incident related to the case was on March 7, 2007.
The CBI chargesheeted the case against Constable Arwil Sangma for allegedly murdering the domestic help and Marbaniang for tampering with evidence.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the single bench headed by Judge W Diengdoh observed that the case of the petitioner is that he is involved as an accused in Sessions Case No. 76 (T) 2013 pending trial before the Court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Shillong.
The counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the trial has taken about 12 years or so, and this has
troubled the petitioner, being of advanced age, about 75 years old,
, and being diligent in his appearance before the court all along, he is concerned
as to when the trial will be finally over, given the fact that there are altogether
102 witnesses out of whom 58 have been examined and discharged so far.
It was also the submission of the counsel that, if the natural course of trial is expected to be conducted, it would take another 75 weeks to complete, if the case is taken up every week.
The counsel submitted that quashing of the proceedings against the petitioner would not be insisted, nevertheless, he urged the court to issue necessary directions for the trial court to expedite the proceedings to ensure that the petitioner is not faced with unnecessary delay as far as the trial is concerned.
The counsel for the CBI submitted that it would not be proper to quash the proceedings against the petitioner, as there is another co-accused person involved, who is facing trial for an offence under Section 302 IPC.
Taking into account the age of the petitioner and the number of years the trial has proceeded, the court directed that the trial court should take up the
proceedings expeditiously, taking recourse to the provision of section 309 Cr.P.C, particularly to ensure that, if possible, the case is taken up on a day-to-day basis; and that the prosecution be directed to revisit the list of witnesses cited, and to cut down the list by striking off irrelevant or unnecessary witnesses, if any.
