Shillong, March 11: The Meghalaya High Court on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to furnish the final list of witnesses of the 2009 infamous education job scam.

Passing an order, the bench headed by Chief Justice IP Mukerji said, “In those circumstances, today this Court proceeds to hear the main application under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code for quashing of the proceedings. In the meantime, the trial court will suitably adjourn the criminal proceedings to enable the CBI to furnish the final list of witnesses to be examined. When such a list is examined the trial court may proceed with further examination of witnesses and the trial.”

“By an earlier order, to ensure a speedy, fair and non-dilatory trial, I had observed that the number of prosecution witnesses be reduced and restricted to those whose testimony would be required to prove the case of the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt and unnecessary witnesses be left out,”CJ said.

During the hearing, DSGI Dr N Mozika submitted that the prosecution had prepared a list of 492 witnesses. 28 of them have already been examined till date.

The order said that the counsel has informed that the prosecution has decided to omit 200 witnesses and examine the remaining 292 of which, 28 have already been examined adding the proposal of the prosecution is awaiting approval from the CBI headquarters in New Delhi.

The court also noted that since the list of witnesses could not be decided upon by the CBI, this matter was further adjourned on February 20, 2025 to this day.

“DSGI submits that the prosecution be allowed to continue with examination of witnesses for speedy trial. It is a matter of surprise that from early December, 2024 the CBI is sitting over its list of witnesses to be examined without finalising it and yet clamouring for speedy trial,” it said while asserting that for a fair and speedy trial, it is essential for the accused to know the exact names of witnesses who would be examined for the prosecution to enable it to prepare its defence.

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