Kapil Sibal was representing Anil Deshmukh in the Supreme Court (File)
A tense hearing in the Supreme Court in a case involving allegations against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh took an amusing detour when senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing the leader, went off screen for some moments.
Mr Sibal, representing Anil Deshmukh in the virtual hearing, vanished just as he was reading out a previous judgment to support his argument that the allegations against his client were all based on hearsay.
"He (Mr Sibal) appears to be gone," noted Justice SK Kaul, heading the Supreme Court bench.
Senior lawyer Harish Salve quipped: "Even the system crashed hearing his arguments." Mr Sibal later rejoined.
In a setback to the Maharashtra government and Mr Deshmukh, the Supreme Court refused to stop a preliminary CBI probe ordered by the Bombay High Court into the allegations of former Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh against the former minister and NCP leader.
Mr Deshmukh resigned as Maharashtra Home Minister after the High Court ordered the CBI investigation.
Mr Singh has accused the former minister of extortion and illegal transfers in an explosive letter after he was replaced and transferred to the Home Guards in a fallout of the Mukesh Ambani bomb scare case in February. Later, he also took Mr Deshmukh to corut.
According to Mr Singh, Mr Deshmukh had planned an extortion racket with police officer Sachin Waze, who was arrested in connection with a car full of explosives abandoned near Mukesh Ambani's home.