The petition -- the first ever case of contempt against the CBI -- charged director Trinath Mishra and SP D P Singh of ``abuse of the process of the court calculated to hamper the due course of a judicial proceeding and the orderly administration of justice.''

Filed in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Prem Kumar today, the petition said the CBI had failed to comply with two of the court's orders dated August 12 and August 20, respectively, both directing the CBI to register a case and probe the conspiracy angle in the death of Rajan Pillai in Tihar jail. Nemi Chand Jain, better known as tantrik Chandraswamy, is the main accused in the case of conspiracy.

However, Nina Pillai's counsel Anitha Shenoyalleged that ``it is abundantly clear from the pattern of litigation initiated by the CBI that they are not interested in investigating the case and have therefore have tried every method to delay the proceeding.'' The CBI had filed its third application making the same request of adjournment for 15 days.

``There does not seem to be an end to these applications. This is nothing but a mockery of the court,'' Nina Pillai charged in the petition, adding, ``the repeated applications by the CBI despite refusal amounts to a daring `raid' on the court and is calculated to obstruct the due course of judicial proceeding and administration of justice, and thus falling squarely within the ambit of criminal contempt.''

Giving the details of the CBI conduct, the petition stated that on May 24, 1997 CMM Prem Kumar said that the CBI was a competent authority to investigate Pillai's death. The CBI was asked to file a compliance report before September 30, 1997. But, the petition added that in order to delay thecompliance, the CBI filed an application for recall of the order which was dismissed on August 14, 1997.

The CBI then filed a revision application in the Delhi High Court saying that the lower court could not direct the agency to investigate a case. However, this too was dismissed by the High Court on August 7, 1998. The CBI, at the stage of passing the order by the High Court, requested for one month adjournment in order to file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) but this too was turned down.

In the meantime, CMM Prem Kumar too rejected the CBI application for adjournment on the plea of filing a SLP on August 12.