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Coal scam: SC asks CBI to probe ex-boss Ranjit Sinha

Ex-director Ranjit Sinha’s alleged abuse of power while probing coal scam the issue; Apex court asks agency to show ‘due earnestness’

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File photo of Ranjit Sinha interacting with the media after becoming CBI chief.
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Barely having settled into his chair, Alok Verma, the current director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has been given a tough job on hand – to investigate former CBI director Ranjit Sinha.

According to an official who spoke to DNA, Sinha's probe falls into the rarest of rare cases. For, never in the agency's history, that extends over 70 years, has a former director been probed by the agency itself.

The order to investigate was given to Verma by the apex court on Monday morning. Directing the CBI chief to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe charges against Sinha's attempt to influence the coal block scam, the apex court said Verma must carry out his task with "due earnestness".

"We are prima facie satisfied and convinced that Ranjit Sinha had abused his position and authority as CBI director," a Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said.

In the past too, the SC had held that Sinha's meetings with some high-profile accused in the coal scam, prima facie, indicated that there had been an attempt to influence the investigation.

DNA, which had accessed the visitor's diary of the former CBI chief, broke the story on September 2, 2014 that top officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), among others, met Sinha at least 50 times in 15 months at his official residence at 2 Janpath in the capital.

In its May 14, 2015 order, the top court held that it was "completely inappropriate for Mr. Ranjit Sinha (then CBI Director) to have met persons accused in the coal block allocation cases without the investigating officer being present or without the investigating team being present."

On Monday, the top court further directed Verma to probe the report by the court-appointed panel headed by former CBI special director ML Sharma (submitted on March 4, 2016) that not only authenticated the genuineness of the visitor's log — the diary that exposed Sinha — but also indicted him of influencing the coal scam investigation.

The SC also said that in the view of these allegations, "it would be necessary to inquire whether any one or more such meetings that Mr Sinha had with the accused persons had any impact on the investigations and subsequent charge sheets or closure reports filed by the CBI."

For overlooking the investigation into the coal scam, the SC further allowed Verma to "take the assistance of two officers of the CBI nominated by the director with due intimation to this court."

Verma will also have to "take the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) into confidence in respect to the investigations." Special Public prosecutor RS Cheema, who is representing the CBI, will assist the CVC on legal issues.

"We have considered the issue whether an outside body of investigators should be appointed as the SIT. However, we hope that with the change of guard in CBI, the agency would probe fairly and impartially against its ex-director," the Bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur, AK Sikri and Kurian Joseph said.

Asked as to what action the CBI will take after the court order, a senior CBI official said that there were a few options before them. The first was a preliminary enquiry (PE) and the second option is to register a case against Sinha, depending on the investigators' discretion. When asked what the SC directive means for Sinha, agency officials said that the matter was sub judice.

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