The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed Trinamool Congress’ charge of “political bias” against the CBI in the Saradha chit fund probe and refused to entertain separate petitions by the Trinamool Congress and the West Bengal Governments for court-monitoring of the probe. The SC did not find any illegality in the probe into the politically sensitive case involving TMC MPs and MlAs.
Ever since the SC directed the transfer of Saradha probe from the West Bengal Police to the CBI on May 9 last year, the TMC has been accusing the probe agency of carrying out “political agenda” of the NDA Government at the Centre by implicating its top leaders in the scam. last week, the TMC finally moved an application in the SC alleging that the CBI’s probe was politically motivated and the agency was “selectively” leaking information to mediapersons and leaders of a political party at the Centre.
“Don’t make this a political arena,” observed a Bench of Justices TS Thakur and C Nagappan questioning how a political party could be included in the case proceedings when already the West Bengal Government was suitably represented in the court by senior advocate Kapil Sibal.
“If they are doing something illegal, you can approach the court concerned. What does your party general secretary have to do in this matterIJ Is it one party against the otherIJ” the Bench questioned.
Although Sibal too referred to media leaks by CBI, he did not press for the prayer in the application seeking a gag on media reporting of the case. But senior advocate Vivek Tankha who appeared for TMC wondered how media and Central Government had premonition of who is to be arrested or questioned by the CBI the next day.
Turning to CBI officials present in the court, the Bench asked, “How do people get to know what is happening. Are you deliberately leakingIJ”
One of the CBI officials bluntly put it “figment of imagination by the media” that led the court to remark, “Media has some intuition. Based on things they witness going on, some of it is perception too.” However, the court dismissed the TMC’s charge to be in the “realm of speculation”.
The court also disposed two contempt petitions moved by the PIl petitioner in the case and an intervenor. They accused TMC of obstructing CBI officials in discharge of their duty aimed to derail the Saradha probe. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar confirmed on behalf of CBI that officials were “intimidated” by TMC workers while appearing in court or producing witnesses. The Bench allowed CBI to move fresh contempt petition if this is repeated.
The court asked CBI to complete the probe into the 76 cases relating to Saradha scam within a timeframe. But CBI officials indicated that the magnitude of the scam got bigger each day making it impractical to suggest time limit. On the non-Saradha chit fund cases, also referred by SC to CBI, the Bench took exception to a CBI letter to West Bengal showing unwillingness to probe due to manpower crunch. The court refused to accept this excuse and asked CBI to move an application pointing out deficiencies. However, a chunk of 193 cases was returned to state in which chargesheet was already filed.