SC stays trial against Jaffer Sharief in corruption case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the trial against senior Congress leader and former Union minister C K Jaffer Sharief less than 24 hours after a Delhi court framed charges against him for allegedly causing loss to the exchequer by taking his personal staff on a foreign jaunt two decades ago.
A bench of Justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the CBI and sought its response in two weeks after Sharief’s counsel, senior advocate P P Rao, argued that it was a clear case of unauthorized prosecution without official sanction.
The 80-year-old leader was accused of flouting rules to take his then private secretary B N Nagesh, stenos S M Masthan and V M Muralidharan and driver C H Samaullah to London as Union minister in 1995. The travel of the three persons had cost the exchequer Rs 7 lakh.
The CBI, which had registered an FIR in 1998 against Sharief, had filed a closure report in 2005 saying the appropriate authority had refused to accord sanction for his prosecution. The trial court had directed the CBI to place the entire investigation record before the sanctioning authority and seek fresh permission for prosecution.
The sanctioning authority refused to grant permission for Sharief’s prosecution and the CBI again filed application for closure of the case. However, the trial court decided to proceed with the case and framed charges against him on Tuesday.