HC rejects Singhvi as witness in case against Anna

The Delhi high court on Monday dismissed a plea for its directions to make Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi a witness in a case against activist Anna Hazare for allegedly instigating public against state.

Justice Pratibha Rani dismissed the plea of Haryana resident Satbir Singh, endorsing a sessions court's order, which had upheld the magisterial court's decision to drop Singhvi's name from the list of witnesses.

"The magistrate in his order on March 17, 2012 has given the reason as to why A M Singhvi was not required to be examined as a witness in the complaint case.

"It has been opined by the magistrate that from the complaint it is not made out how his statement is relevant and what facts were witnessed by him," Justice Pratibha Rani said.

"Even before this court the petitioner (Singh) has not explained as to how the testimony of Singhvi becomes relevant for the purpose of his complaint. In the list of witnesses, initially filed along with the complaint, he did not even propose to mention his (Singhvi) name as witness," the high court said.

Challenging the trial court's order Singh had approached the high court early this month. Satbir had sought to prosecute activist Hazare and his colleagues Kiran Bedi, Shanti Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly instigating people against the government last year during their anti-graft campaign.

The magisterial court, before which the complaint had been filed, had dropped Singhvi's name as a witness saying there was no material in the complaint which could be proved by the Congress leader as a witness.

The magistrate had said Singhvi, a Rajya Sabha member, was made a witness for "sensationalising" the case. The sessions court later had upheld the magisterial court's order and had dismissed Satbir's plea terming it as "non-maintainable".