Agencies
New Delhi
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the head of the country’s federal policing agency to excuse himself from a corruption case following allegations of wrongdoing.
Central Bureau of Investigation director Ranjit Sinha was ordered off a long-running probe into an alleged scam involving the sale of 2G telecom licences to businesses at throwaway prices.
But Chief Justice H L Dattu declined to give detailed reasons for the order, saying doing so would tarnish the reputation of the CBI, which handles major criminal investigations.
“Prima facie it appears that information given against Ranjit Sinha is credible and acceptable,” said Dattu, who headed a three-judge bench.
“We are not giving elaborate reasons for this order because the CBI as an agency has a reputation, and if we give elaborate orders, it will tarnish their image,” he said.
“We direct Ranjit Sinha not to interfere with the 2G case and recuse himself.”
The court was hearing a petition against Sinha over allegations he might have interfered in the investigation by privately meeting several people accused in the scam.
Sinha has long denied any wrongdoing.
“We suspect your actions. The suspicion is substantiated by Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover, who is our representative, who has gone through the records. He has given synopsis of the file noting. Prima facie it appears that things are not well. It inspires no confidence and would amount to derailing the trial. You can’t brush aside their statements as false and malicious,” the court said.
The court told Sinha’s lawyer Vikas Singh: “When it appears to us that things are not well, somebody may take over and proceed. We don’t want to pass an order casting aspersions on the investigations.”
Grover said Sinha had interfered in the 2G case which is completely inconsistent with the agency’s stand.
“Our case in 2G could have been demolished, if Sinha’s stand was accepted,” Grover told the highest court.
Former telecoms minister A Raja and a slew of corporate and government officials have been charged over the 2G scam, one of a string of corruption cases that rocked the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
The scam centred on the 2007-2008 sale of 2G mobile phone licences at cut-rate prices to favour some firms that the national Comptroller and Auditor General said cost the treasury billions of dollars in lost revenues.
The CBI took up the investigation again in 2013 after tapped phone calls came to light between a former corporate lobbyist, business executives and government bureaucrats over the sale.
The petition involving Sinha has heard that a whistleblower unearthed documents and a visitor’s diary of Sinha’s residence that allegedly showed the names of those who had visited him.
Earlier in the day, the court took exception to the CBI’s submission that senior counsel K K Venugopal will no longer represent the agency in the 2G spectrum case.
The court did not take kindly to the probe agency’s joint director Ashok Tiwari telling counsel Gopal Shankar Narayan that Venugopal would not appear for the CBI in the ongoing case on allegations that Sinha was interfering in the probe.
The court also did not take well to the presence of a large number of CBI officers in the courtroom.
When senior counsel Vikas Singh, representing Sinha, sought to justify this, saying they were assisting the court in giving clarifications on files, if any, Chief Justice Dattu said: “We have not called them. If we need any clarification, we will call them.”
The chief justice then asked all the officers to vacate the courtroom and attend to their work.
Sinha meanwhile said he was not embarrassed by the court order.
“There is no embarrassment. I will abide by the SC order on recusing myself,” Sinha said.
