The Supreme Court on Friday directed the CBI not to file any closure report in the coal scam investigation till October 17 by when the Income Tax department is expected to produce in the court an in-house report against alleged hawala operator Moin Qureshi, who was a prominent visitor to CBI Director Ranjit Sinha’s residence.
The court passed the order on an application moved by petitioner Common Cause through lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who alleged that the Appraisal Report prepared by the IT Department against Qureshi would reveal “dealings” between Qureshi and Sinha and this link was sufficient to indicate the role played by the CBI Director in influencing the coal scam probe.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for the Income tax agency informed the court that the report was not prepared yet and would require a month to be finalised. However, he volunteered to produce the report to court in a sealed cover on October 17. The court did not formally issue notice to the Centre on Bhushan’s application but indicated, “Centre has a vital role to play as regards this report.”
Till the next date, the bench headed by Chief Justice RM lodha ordered the CBI, “Don’t take any precipitated action.” Investigating officers of the CBI who were present in the court informed the bench that three charge-sheets were ready to be filed. The bench, also comprising Justices Madan lokur and Kurian Joseph said, “These are investigations before us. Till we take up the matter on next date, nothing should be done.”
Bhushan informed the court that Qureshi, who is a meat exporter, had come under the scanner of the IT sleuths who raided his premises recently in connection with alleged hawala transactions. He cited news reports to suggest that Qureshi’s daughter received contracts from Sinha. Commenting on the explosive potential of the report, Bhushan said, “If Qureshi is working as a middleman between the accused and the CBI Director that’s what the report will show.”
High drama was witnessed during the proceedings when Bhushan was repeatedly interrupted by Sinha’s lawyer and senior advocate Vikas Singh. He objected to Bhushan arguing the application as it mentioned that Qureshi met Sinha 90 times in the past 15 months as per the entry register kept at Sinha’s residence.
Singh said such an application should not be heard as another bench hearing the 2G scam had asked Bhushan to reveal the source of the register and will be heard on Monday. Counsel for the CBI senior advocate Amarendra Saran accused Bhushan of “bench hunting” to seek favourable orders from this bench after the 2G bench had asked him to produce the name of the whistleblower who gave him the register. On the application linking Qureshi with Sinha, Saran made a spirited attempt to defend the Director by arguing that the case had nothing to do with the coal scam. He asked the court to make him liable for perjury in the event what he alleges is proved wrong.
The bench’s attempt to draw a link between Qureshi and the coal scam failed due to repeated interruptions by Singh forcing the court to comment, “You (Singh) have exceeded your limit. You can’t hijack proceedings and preach to us what needs to be done. It doesn’t happen like this in the highest court.”