New Delhi, Oct 28: Asking Indian judiciary to take a cue from a US court granting Rajat Gupta bail, Congress leader Digvijay Singh today said undertrials should not be kept in lock up once they are chargesheeted.
“Good to know Rajat Gupta got bail. Would our Judiciary also take a cue and not keep undertrials in lock up once they are chargesheeted,” Singh said in his post on Twitter, a day after the iconic figure in US corporate world was released on USD 10 million bond after he pleaded not guilty to offences that carry a potential punishment of 105 years in prison.
Gupta was arrested in the US on charges of passing insider information to his billionaire friend Raj Rajaratnam.
In an apparent reflection of the unease in the Congress over Singh's comments, the party said it was his personal opinion and does not feel the need to comment on judicial proceedings or on every remark of “others”.
Congress leaders speaking privately however said the party feels it is “irrelevant” to draw any analogy between Rajat case and cases like 2G and CWG scams.
“It is his opinion. Ask him about it. We do not feel the need to comment on it. Congress party does not feel the need to comment on any judicial and legal process.
Nor it does it feel the need to give remarks about any individual case. I do not see any reason for the Congress to comment on every remark of others,” party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said responding to a volley of questions on Singh's remarks.
The AICC General Secretary's suggestion to Indian courts came against the backdrop of former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi being lodged in jails as undertrials in corruption cases like 2G and Commonwealth Games. He however did not take any names.
BJP hit out at Digvijay's remarks terming it as an attempt to “derail justice”, and said the statement had been made because of cases and allegations faced by Congress leaders, including ministers.
“There is an attempt to derail justice,” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters.
Later talking to PTI over phone, Singh, quoting Justice V R Krishna Aiyar, former Supreme Court judge, said “every accused has the right to get a bail, until he is convicted”.
