Facing the heat over the indictment of three of its officers for wrongfully implicating two innocent men as terrorists, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police has submitted a report in a city court, questioning the maintainability of the CBI’s closure report in the case, filed in November last year.

In an apparent bid to bail out its three sub-inspectors, the elite branch of the police has raised objections over the content of the report in which the CBI had sought prosecution of the officers on the charge of falsely incriminating Irshad Ali and Moarif Qamar under grave penal provisions, linking then to the Kashmiri militant group Al-Badar.

Submitting the report before Additional Sessions Judge S K Gautam, the Special Cell claimed that the CBI recommendations were in contravention of the views of the Delhi High Court, which had earlier observed that allegation of false implication was to be probed only during trial.

The report said the CBI’s closure report was “not maintainable” and was merely a reproduction of the earlier status report filed by the agency before the High Court.

Moreover, the CBI erred in investigating the case in a fresh manner whereas the direction by the High Court pertained only to further investigation, it read.

Clearly at loggerheads with the central agency, the Special Cell’s report further contended: “The CBI by way of this closure report has tried to achieve the relief which was not granted by the High Court.”

Requesting the court to “return” the closure report to the agency, the police have asked for continuation of the trial against the two accused.

Notably, while the five-page report brings up the CBI’s condemnation of the three SIs and severe objections against it, the document ignores the most important aspect of the case—investigation and evidence against Ali and Qamar that led to their arrest.

“It is evident that the police have been caught on the wrong foot. Now their prime concern is to save their guilty officers. Otherwise, they would have defended their investigation and not just the officers,” the defence counsel Sufian Siddiqui said.

Calling the filing of the report the Special Cell’s “attempt to derail the trial”, he said the further investigation ordered by the HC in the case was up to the CBI and the agency was free to conduct investigation in the manner it deemed right.

“Now that the Special Cell is no more the investigating agency in the matter, and is representing the state, it has no locus standi in the case,” he said.

The court has directed the defence in the case to submit its reply by January 13.

The Special Cell had arrested Ali and Qamar on February 9, 2006, from the G T Karnal bus terminal. The police had claimed that pistols, RDX, detonators and other ammunitions had been recovered from them.