Coal scam: Supreme Court issues notice to CBI chief Ranjit Sinha; gives 10 days to respond to allegations

The Supreme Court issued a notice to CBI director Ranjit Sinha on Tuesday on a plea seeking his removal and an SIT probe against him for allegedly protecting the accused in the coal scam. The Supreme Court has asked Sinha to file a response in 10 days and posted the matter for further hearing on September 19. 

Another bench of the Supreme Court, while hearing on the 2G case, had told the CBI chief on Monday that the accusations against him were serious and that the court was watching the 2G investiation closely. “The Supreme Court wants a fair trial. If we find there was some derailment of the entire investigation, the court will take a particular view,” the Supreme Court said. The Supreme Court on Monday, had issued a notice to the CBI director for allegedly protecting some accused in 2G case. 

At the begining of the proceeding on Tuesday, the bench observed that an order has already been passed by another bench of the apex court against Sinha and no further order is required. But advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for an NGO, which filed application against Sinha, contended that yesterday's order was on the 2G case and the court could pass order pertaining to the coal scam. Thereafter, the bench agreed to issue notice to Sinha and posted the case after next date of hearing of 2G scam, which is to take place on September 15, when the apex court will look into the response filed by the CBI director.

The NGO Common Cause represented by Prashant Bhushan, whose PIL led to the declaration of 218 coal block allocations as illegal, moved the Supreme Court seeking the removal of Sinha from his post of CBI director. It had also asked the apex court to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the “abuse of authority committed by the CBI director to scuttle inquiries, investigations and prosecutions carried out by the agency in coal block allocation cases and other important cases”.

This comes is the midst of strong allegations that Sinha had met several of the accused in the coal and 2G scams at his residence multiple times over the past few months. 

The CBI next moved the court against the NGO for making "false statements" against Sinha.

Background

Earlier, Sinha had admitted that he met several people mentioned in the diary, but the allegations are dubious because it doesn’t include many names of the people who visited him. dna first reported on September 2 about two top officials from the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) meeting Sinha at least 50 times in 15 months at 2, Janpath, his official residence.

It is to be seen how and to what extent Sinha will save his face before the bench headed by Justice HL Dattu. The bench has been hearing cases like the 2G spectrum allocation, involving former telecom minister A Raja and DMK leader Kanimozhi.

Sinha was at the centre of controversy before the apex court after the petitioner-NGO’s lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, cited dna’s news report and brought to the court’s notice that the visitors’ entry register at Sinha’s residence was “very disturbing” and contained “explosive material” in the 2G spectrum allocation scam against Reliance Telecom. The court, which went through the diary in detail, took a serious view and asked Bhushan to file an affidavit in support of the documents, so that it can pass an appropriate order.

dna, which has access to Sinha’s visitors’ diary, had reported that two ADAG officials – Tony Jesudasan and AN Sethuraman (whose names are mentioned incompletely in the diary as 'Tony', 'Toni', ....., 'Setu Raman' and 'Toni + Setu') had visited Sinha’s house individually and together almost every week between May 2013 and August 2014, and the cars they used are registered in the name of ADAG.

The frequency of their visits increased this year when Sinha moved a proposal to re-investigate the case against Reliance Telecom and Swan Telecom on grounds that some new facts had come to light.

dna also reported about Sinha’s meeting with alleged hawala operator and Kanpur-based meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi. Sinha met Qureshi at least 90 times in the last 15 months. The two seem to be family friends as Qureshi’s wife, Nasreen, is also a frequent visitor to 2, Janpath. Nasreen had visited Sinha’s residence at least five times.

Qureshi, who seems to enjoy a lot of clout with CBI directors, hogged into the limelight earlier this year after continuous income tax raids on his alleged business activities, which exposed his links with cabinet ministers and a political leader believed to be very close to 10, Janpath.

While the CBI was probing the coal scam, Congress MP Vijay Darda and his son Devendra – both accused in the case — visited Sinha’s residence, according to the diary. While Vijay met him in January 2014, Devendra visited Sinha 10 times between February and April 2014. The diary also includes names of some politicians like Union food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay.

Paswan, along with one Mithilesh, a coal mining expert, had visited Sinha on March 16 and spent 46 minutes there.The CBI had started investigating Paswan’s role in the Bokaro Steel Plant recruitment scam, which it unearthed in January this year. In February, the agency claimed that Paswan had shot off letters of recommendation for recruitment.

By the end of February, it was clear that Paswan would be questioned by the CBI. On February 26, Paswan announced his joining the NDA. The meeting between Paswan and Sinha happened exactly 16 days after Paswan joining the NDA. The CBI raided 30 places in January and registered two cases, but it has not questioned Paswan so far.

Controversial corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar, who was named in one of the preliminary enquiries by the CBI in the Nira Radia tapes case, visited Sinha’s residence at least 63 times in 15 months.