Prashant Bhushan files plaint against CBI director, seeks registration of FIR

Noted advocate Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday lodged a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Branch of Delhi Government seeking registration of an FIR against CBI director Ranjit Sinha under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

Bhushan, who sought a thorough investigation against Sinha, alleged that Sinha had attempted to influence various cases including the 2G scam and coal block allocation scam after meeting the accused persons or their representative at his residence 2 Janpath here.

dna, which has access to the visitors' diary at 2 Janpath, had first reported on September 2 that the register showed that top officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) had met Sinha as many as 50 times at his official residence (2 Janpath). These two officials appear to be Tony Jesudasan (PR manager and director in several ADAG companies) and AN Sethuraman (group president of ADAG)....These visits happened contemporaneously with the development that Sinha had attempted to destroy the CBI's prosecution case against accused Reliance Telecom and its 3 officers.

Subsequently, through a series of stories dna had reported that Sinha also met various accused and their representatives and alleged hawala operator Moin Quereshi and others at his residence.

On Bhushan's plea, Supreme Court has removed Sinha from 2G case last week for his interference in 2G case.

In his complaint, Bhushan said, "The instant complaint concerns the rampant abuse of office and criminal misconduct by Ranjit Sinha as the CBI director. Sinha has committed various offences under the PCA relating to criminal misconduct by a public servant, as well as under Sections 217 and 218 of IPC. The offences of bribery can also be established by a thorough investigation," and sought for a "thorough and impartial" investigation against Sinha.

The lawyer, who is representing NGO - Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) in the Supreme Court monitored 2G case, said, "now the evidence has surfaced, that Sinha "deliberately" tried to save certain influential persons from prosecution in the 2G scam, coal scam, etc by abusing his position as the CBI director."

The CBI has been investigating several important cases like the 2G spectrum allocation scam, coal block allocation scam, Karnataka mining scandal, etc and as head of the CBI, Sinha was taking several important decisions in these cases which included whether a chargesheet should be filed, who should be prosecuted and for what offence, who should be arrested, what should be the line of investigation, how should the CBI conduct its cases in courts etc.

Bhushan said, the guests' entry register of 2013 and 2014, maintained at the gate of the official residence of the CBI director Sinha, shows that Sinha was meeting accused/potential accused (or their agents/lawyers) in important cases like 2G scam, coal scam, and with hawala operators like Moin Qureshi being investigated by the CBI, repeatedly at his residence without the presence of other CBI officers.

Besides, Sinha's interference in 2G case, Bhushan said as the coal investigations progressed, it came to Supreme Court's notice that Sinha, along with a few other senior officers of the level of the joint directors, was repeatedly overruling the investigation officers and forcing them to not to register FIRs/RCs in cases where PEs had been registered. He even forced them to file closure reports in cases where FIRs had already been registered. Finally, the court on March 28, had directed the CBI to submit their reports to the Central Vigilance

The lawyer said this matter cannot be effectively investigated by the CBI since it involves two directors of CBI and might involve their other officers and sought incase ACB has no jurisdiction, then it should be transferred to the concerned police station here.