A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court rejected a plea seeking to call Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani as a witness in a 1989 case related to an alleged attempt to murder businessman Nusli Wadia.
Ivan Sequeira, one of the accused in the more than 33-year-old case, had moved the special CBI court last year seeking to examine Mukesh Ambani as a witness. The central agency, probing the case, had opposed the plea. SP Naik Nimbalkar, judge of special CBI court, after hearing both defence and prosecution, rejected Sequeira’s plea. A detailed order was not available yet.
Also, as per a lawyer, the court rejected the application on the ground that the accused doesn’t have a say in deciding whom the prosecution should summon as a witness. Earlier, the investigation agency, in its reply to the court, said the accused had no right to seek further investigation into the case, and his application should be dismissed. Kirti Ambani, a former senior executive at Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) who died in the course of the trial, is the prime accused in the case.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Kirti Ambani and others on July 31, 1989, for allegedly conspiring to kill Wadia, a former chairman of Bombay Dyeing, due to business rivalry. The Maharashtra government transferred the probe to the CBI on August 2, 1989, but the trial began only in 2003.
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