- (1.) By the Court. The CBI has submitted the progress report which has been taken on record.
(2.) As per the report of CBI, following facts are taken note of : Out of total 53 Fodder Scam Cases being tried at Ranchi, 38 cases have been disposed of. During the period under report, one of the Fodder Scam Case i.e. RC49(A)/96-Pat has been disposed of in which total 61 accused persons faced the trial and out of them, 58 have heen convicted. In all 38 cases which have been decided till now, the accused persons have been convicted. It has been submitted in report that apart from 38 disposed of cases, in two cases i.e. RC31(A)/96-Pat and RC52(A)/96- Pat, prosecution evidence have been concluded. Case No. RC31(A)/96-Pat is at recording of the statement of the accused under Section 313, Cr.P.C. whereas RC52(A)/96-Pat is at final argument stage. Out of 15 cases pending trial, 9 cases are at prosecution evidence stage, 01 case is at the stage of recording statement of accused under Section 313 Cr.P.C, 02 cases are at defence evidence stage and 03 cases are at final argument stage. During the period of this report, 165 prosecution witnesses and 14 defence witnesses have been examined. Three of the prosecution witnesses were recalled and they were discharged after their re- examination. In RC20(A)/96-Pat, the evidence of the Investigating Officer has started on 18.04.2011, however, the Presiding Officer of this Court was transferred on 14.09.2011. During the period of this report, total 122 accused persons have been examined by the Special Courts in terms of the provision of Section 313 Cr.P.C.
(3.) Learned counsel for the CBI submitted that there are large number of witnesses and those witnesses were brought in Court by the CBI even by flight incurring huge expenditure. It is submitted that large number of applications have been submitted for reimbursement of the expenses incurred by the witnesses but those applications have not yet been decided and the payments have not been made to the witnesses and in view of the above, even some of the witnesses refuse to cooperate the CBI when their presence was needed for further re-examination in the Court in the same case or in other cases of the Fodder Scam itself.;