The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre not to act against a senior Enforcement Directorate official handling the sensitive 2G spectrum scam and Aircel-Maxis case, after he sought a CBI probe into the conspiracy hatched against him on the basis of an anonymous complaint.
Represented by advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, ED Joint Director Rajeshwar Singh informed the court that in the past too anonymous complaints were made against him to scuttle the probe against certain influential persons in the 2G spectrum scam. Then the court had come to the rescue of the officer and ordered a stay on all enquiry/action against him.
Praying for a similar relief, Singh’s counsel noted a trend that the complaints began to pour in after he conducted raids against Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, as part of investigations into the Aircel-Maxis deal.
Assets worth Rs 1.16 crore were attached and Singh lodged a complaint before the adjudicating authority on September 23, 2017.
“Pursuant to the filing of complaint by the applicant (Singh) a series of false, frivolous and concocted complaints have started coming in against the applicant….the allegations are nothing but a tool to mentally harass the applicant that he may not be able to do his duty with utmost sincerity and that his peace of mind remains disturbed and occupied by such issues,” his counsel said.
The Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer issued notice on the application to the Centre, ED, and CBI seeking their responses. It further ordered, “Having regard to the nature of the allegations in the IA and earlier orders of this court, pending further orders, we deem it appropriate that no action be initiated against the applicant herein by any of the authorities.”
Advocate Prashant Bhushan who was appearing for the petitioner in the 2G case, supported the cause of the officer and pointed out that the court had appreciated 14 status reports submitted in the 2G case by him so far.
Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy was also present in the court as another petitioner in the 2G spectrum scam case backed the officer’s claim. He said, “It is really sad to see that an honest officer is being targeted by politicians in high places.”
Singh said these anonymous complaints should not be allowed to withhold his promotion as Additional Director of the ED.