High court pulls up Economic Offence Wing for dragging on case

The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police faced the ire of the Bombay high court on Monday. The division bench of justice PB Majmudar and justice RG Ketkar pulled up the EOW officers for dragging the investigation of a case for seven years.

The EOW has refrained from filing a charge sheet in the said case and also an affidavit in the high court despite a cost imposed by the high court on one of its officers.

“This is mockery of the judicial system. Nowhere in the world investigation is dragged for seven years. In other countries trials get over in one year, but ours is a unique system,” remarked justice Majmudar.

The court further said that if the affidavit is not filed, it will call all the officers from EOW and ask the commissioner of police to hand over the investigation to some other agency.

In December 2009, the high court had imposed a cost of Rs5,000 after the EOW repeatedly failed to file the reply affidavit in a petition filed by Bhagyashree Lele, 42, following the investigating agency’s failure to file charge sheet in a cheating case of 2000.

The cost was imposed on a senior police inspector. The petition does not name any officer, as two officers investigating the case have been transferred, said AM Chimalkar, advocate for Lele.
On November 11, 2000, Lele had filed a complaint with the EOW against her brother-in-law, Rajendra Lele, for allegedly cheating her to the tune of Rs67 lakh.

In 1993, the Leles started a business of dealership of Modi Xerox Limited products. Bhagyashree was made the proprietor. However, Rajendra used to handle all the business transactions.  The court has directed the EOW to submit its affidavit by Tuesday.