CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, who has been under attack for allegedly meeting officials of companies involved in 2G scam and Coalgate, on Thursday said he would recuse himself from the ongoing probe in Coal scam if the Supreme Court ordered so.
He also decided to file a perjury case against an NGO for making "malicious and false" statements before the Supreme Court. "I will recuse myself from coal scam investigations if Supreme Court orders so," Sinha told reporters in New Delhi.
The NGO 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation'(CPIL) being represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan in the Supreme Court, have accused Sinha of meeting officials belonging to companies accused in the the 2G and Coal scams.
Sinha's reaction came within hours of the NGO filing an application before the apex court demanding that he be kept away from the coal block allocation scam probe because he has interfered with it. The NGO referred to a document showing ingress and egress into his official residence which contains names of "influential" persons allegedly involved in the coal blocks allocation scam. The CBI has dubbed the document as "fake".
"The CBI Director, on the basis of legal advice, has decided to file a case of perjury for malicious, deliberate and intentional false statement before the apex court," CBI Spokesperson Kanchan Prasad said here.
The application will be filed before the Supreme Court tomorrow.
Three months to his retirement, Sinha has been in the news lately because of a register which purportedly shows entry to his residence of personnel working with companies accused in 2G and coal scams.
Interestingly, Moin Qureshi, a meat exporter, against whom the Income tax department has launched a probe for alleged tax evasion, is also shown as having had frequent meetings with him. However, the Director later told PTI that he was his friend and there was no criminal investigations pending against him.
Terming it as "deliberate character assassination", Sinha said he has not favoured anyone and the courts are there to scrutinise every paper and every aspect of investigations being carried out by the agency.
The CBI Director also said that corporate rivalry was well known in this country but unfortunately this time they were trying to engulf the CBI by carrying out malicious campaign against him.
He contended that all the 2G scam cases were probed before he took over as Director on December 2, 2012. His tenure ends in December this year.
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