Two accused in the Rizwanur Rahman death case moved appeals in the high court on Wednesday against a trial court order asking the CBI to file chargesheets against them.

The lawyers of Ashok Todi, Rizwanur’s father-in-law, and Anil Saraogi, another in-law of the slain computer graphics designer, argued that the trial court’s order was “unconstitutional”.

The lawyers argued before the division bench of Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Maharaja Sinha that their clients were not allowed to defend themselves.

On August 14, Justice Dipankar Dutta of the high court had ordered the CBI to file chargesheets against Todi, Saraogi and five others, including three police officers.

The lawyers of both Todi and Saraogi argued that the trial court judge had delivered the order without giving their clients an opportunity to contest the charges against them. The judge, they claimed, had not given them copies of the CBI’s report.

Appearing for Todi, advocate Pradip Ghosh said the trial court, being a writ court, had no jurisdiction to conclude that the CBI findings were true. “The trial judge had acted as the criminal trial judge.”

Appearing for Saraogi, advocate Anindya Mitra claimed that his client was not in Calcutta when Rizwanur married Priyanka Todi against the wishes of her family.

“He was in Germany from August 15 to 31. Still, the CBI implicated him and the trial judge allowed the agency to start criminal proceedings against him,” he claimed.

Both Ghosh and Mitra prayed for an interim stay on Justice Dutta’s order. “We are hopeful that the court will admit our appeals for hearing,” said Mitra.