A day after Supreme Court slammed CBI Director Ranjit Sinha for professional misconduct, Additional Director of the agency RK Dutta on Friday took charge of the 2G scam probe.
A 1981-batch IPS officer from the Karnataka cadre, Rupak Kumar Dutta is the overall in-charge of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the agency which is probing the 2G scam.The decision comes after the agency went through the Supreme Court order that sought the head of the investigating team to take charge of the 2G scam probe and Sinha should recuse from the investigation and prosecution of the spectrum cases.
CBI sources said initially it was not clear whether Special Director Anil Sinha who is the number two after the Director will oversee the probe or Dutta who is in-charge of ACB will lead the investigation.
“As per the directions of the Supreme Court of India, Director CBI has recused himself from the investigation and prosecution of the case relating to 2G Spectrum allocation. As directed, RK Dutta, Additional Director, who is the senior-most officer of the investigating team in the aforesaid case, will henceforth be overall In-charge of the case,” CBI said in a statement.
Due to retire on December 2, Sinha had on Thursday suffered a major blow when the apex court sacked him from the responsibility of investigation and prosecution of 2G scam cases, saying the allegations against him of protecting some influential accused persons appear to be “prima facie credible”.