DPP Roger Gas­pard, SC, has re­spond­ed in what ap­peared to be the lat­est tit-for-tat be­tween his of­fice and the Ju­di­cia­ry in the Dana See­ta­hal mur­der tri­al. 

Yes­ter­day, in a press re­lease, Gas­pard ad­mit­ted to re­ceiv­ing the nec­es­sary doc­u­ments to fur­ther the tri­al, but not in the for­mat he re­quired in keep­ing with the In­dictable Of­fences (Pre­lim­i­nary En­quiry) Act, or IO­PEA. 

On the tenth an­niver­sary of Se­nior Coun­sel See­ta­hal’s death, the DPP lament­ed that the Ju­di­cia­ry had not sent the com­plet­ed com­mit­tal pro­ceed­ings to his of­fice. The Ju­di­cia­ry re­spond­ed by say­ing that they did send the 8,100-page doc­u­ment elec­tron­i­cal­ly. 

It said: “The Ju­di­cia­ry wish­es to cor­rect the as­ser­tion.

“Due to its size, the com­mit­tal bun­dle in the case of The State vs Ra­jaee Ali and oth­ers, which con­tains over 8,100 pages, was sent to the Of­fice of the DPP via file trans­fer pro­to­col (FTP) in three parts, on De­cem­ber 20, 2023, and Jan­u­ary 5, 2024,” it added. 

But now the DPP is say­ing he wants those doc­u­ments in hard copy in com­pli­ance with the IO­PEA. 

“Sec­tions 25 to 27 of the IO­PEA do not con­tem­plate the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions fil­ing a valid in­dict­ment on the ba­sis of copies, whether elec­tron­ic or oth­er­wise,” DPP Gas­pard said in a state­ment. 

He ex­plained, “The doc­u­ments com­pris­ing more than 8,100 pages could sure­ly have been more eas­i­ly se­cured in a few bankers box­es and trans­mit­ted to this of­fice in the three years and five months that it has tak­en to pro­vide an elec­tron­ic copy.”

Gas­pard said he will need to have the orig­i­nal com­mit­tal bun­dle to ful­fil statu­to­ry du­ties un­der the IO­PEA and to file a valid in­dict­ment since ex­pe­di­en­cy is not a source of law. 

The DPP said he has been try­ing since Jan­u­ary 5 to have the orig­i­nal doc­u­ments sent to his of­fice. He said he’s now been told by the Ju­di­cia­ry the ear­li­est the bun­dle can be de­liv­ered is May 20 this year. 

On the eve of the tenth an­niver­sary of See­ta­hal’s mur­der on Fri­day, Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Roger Gas­pard, SC, claimed that his of­fice was wait­ing for the Ju­di­cia­ry to send the com­mit­tal bun­dle from the con­clud­ed pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in the case for in­dict­ments to be filed against the ac­cused. 

Gas­pard’s claim about the is­sue was chal­lenged by the Ju­di­cia­ry in a press re­lease is­sued.