The Supreme Court on Thursday further shamed former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha by terming his secret meetings with coal scam accused as “inappropriate” and called for an enquiry to determine its impact on investigations linked to these accused. The court issued notice to Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) to suggest by July 6 on what methodology to adopt for inquiring the link between Sinha’s meetings and the subsequent chargesheets or closure reports that were filed during the relevant period.
This is the second indictment of Sinha after another Supreme Court Bench monitoring the 2G spectrum scam issued an order on November 20, 2011 asking Sinha not to interfere in the 2G cases after the visitor log-book at his residence revealed that he entertained 2G scam accused at his residence. Dealing with an application moved by NGO Common Cause that acted as a whistleblower to expose how high profile accused in the coal scam frequented Sinha’s official residence, the Bench of Justices Madan B lokur, Kurian Joseph and AK Sikri said, “The fact that Sinha met some of the accused persons without the investigating officer or the investigating team being present disturbs us with regard to the fairness of the investigations.”
The applicant represented by Advocate Prashant Bhushan demanded an SIT to enquire into the abuse of authority by Sinha, who issued several directions to scuttle the probe in order to benefit the accused visitors. In this regard, Bhushan even presented a classified file noting from CBI office to illustrate how the visits made by the accused coincided with significant twists and turns made at the behest of Sinha.
The Bench said, “Since we have held it was completely inappropriate for Sinha to have met persons accused in the coal block allocation case…it is necessary to look into the question whether any one or more such meetings of Sinha with accused persons without the investigating officer have had any impact on the investigations and subsequent chargesheets or closure reports filed by CBI.”
Sinha’s counsel Vikas Singh admitted having met the accused but justified it saying it was his job to meet the accused persons to get their view point on their criminality. The Bench felt that when investigation was underway it was not proper to meet the accused even at his office as it affected fairness of investigation. Next, Sinha accused Bhushan of perjury for obtaining classified documents. The Bench held that no perjury was made out as the whistleblower (Common Cause) acted in public interest.