Leave it to the courts: Arun Jaitley on Malegaon case

New Delhi: With Opposition alleging dilution of terror cases against right wing groups under Modi Government, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the matter should be left to the courts and if anything is wrong or improper, the judiciary will take a view on it.

Arun Jaitley

He also hit back at Congress, accusing it of using investigation agencies when UPA was in power for "fabricating" chargesheets and said in each of these cases, courts discharged the accused even without a trial.

In an interaction with journalists organised by Indian Women's Press Corps, he also brushed aside the charge that BJP-ruled states were revising text books to ignore icons associated with opposition parties and said the allegation is made whenever the saffron party is power.

Asked about Congress' allegations on dropping of charges against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and others in Malegaon blasts, he said, "These are legal matters which are based on quality of evidence available. "These are matters ultimately over which courts will have to take a view. The charge sheet will go to court. If anything is wrong or improper I am sure courts will take a view."

He, however, used the opportunity to hit back at the UPA and also took a dig at media, saying it was "overgenerous" when some of these chargesheets were filed by probe agencies during the Manmohan Singh government. "The manner in which investigation agencies were used, some of them, the manner in which credibility of some of the agencies declined I think was a record low," the Finance Minister said.

As the then Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, he had written to Singh about these cases and how chargesheets were fabricated.

"In each of the cases I referred to, each case without a single exception the courts did not even frame the charge. They discharged the accused even without a trial. The discharge took place not under NDA, but when UPA was in power, in some of them," he said.

Though he did not speak about these cases, Jaitley had targeted the then UPA government over criminal cases against Amit Shah, now BJP President, in alleged fake encounter probe. Shah later received a clean chit.

To a poser about text book revisions, he said, "I do not subscribe to that allegation at all. Every time a revision takes place, the charge is normally made.... When explanation comes, they present a contrary picture. Without examining it I will not get into details.".