JAIPUR: A single judge bench of

on Friday observed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (

) has lost it credibility and the agency is proving counterproductive to the aims and objectives with which it was established.

The high court's observations are serious following the Thursday CBI arrest of

and chief whip of the state assembly Rajendra Singh Rathore in the Dara Singh's fake encounter case. The liquor smuggler, Dara Singh was killed, allegedly in a fake encounter, by Special Operation Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police in Jaipur on October 23, 2006.

The observations of the bench came on a criminal miscellaneous petition filed by one of the accused police officials, Jagram, in the

. Rathore was sentenced to jail on Thursday by a CBI court on the charges of planning the fake encounter. The CBI sought no remand for interrogation and filing supplementary chargesheet. The CBI's action is being criticized for having no new evidence in the case.

Without naming any politicians, Justice Sharma criticized the CBI for extending discriminatory treatment to the accused in the Dara Singh case, "It appears that the accused in the same case are being given differential treatment by the CBI. You people salute an accused, offer him tea and coffee and send him behind bars facilitating his judicial custody but you manage to get police custody of the other accused for a maximum time period in the same case. The aims and objectives with which CBI was established have been compromised and the CBI is proving counterproductive to these objectives and it is high time that the agency is shut down."

The judge was referring to the fact that A K Jain, the then DGP Crimes who surrendered before the court, was remanded in custody by the CBI for a maximum period of 13 days.

Ajay Kumar Jain, counsel for the head constable Jagram, who moved the high court on Thursday, contented that the special public prosecutor S K Saxena appointed by the CBI, resided in Delhi and the CBI court was adjusting the dates of trial as per the availability of the CBI lawyer. He also complained that only non-material witnesses were being summoned by the CBI and his prayer to call material witnesses was rejected by the CBI court.

"This is travesty of justice. We fail to understand how the CBI can give a go by to the humanitarian view of the fact that an accused is languishing in jail for more than 11 months and the CBI is all out to deliberately delay the trial. An accused has a right of speedy trial, whether he will be punished or not is yet to be seen but he cannot be denied a speedy justice. We deem it proper to discharge the duties of special public prosecutor of the CBI S K Saxena but would like to hear him before doing so," observed Justice Sharma.

The CBI counsels T P Sharma and special prosecutor Sarfaraz Ahmed tried to convince the bench that the CBI was working properly under law but the bench directed that advocate S K Saxena, counsel for CBI from Delhi be directed to remain present in court on Monday, April 9.

"We have no faith in the CBI now as it has impeached its own credibility which this court has seen in the recent controversial cases like Goplagarh. We cannot deny a fair and speedy trial to any accused," observed Justice Sharma.