SC puts CBI chief Ranjit Sinha on notice

CBI chief landed in big controversy after he has been accused by Centre or Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), an NGO associated with 2G spectrum case of meeting people who are accused in 2G and ‘Coalgate scam’.

CPIL counsel lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan has brought allegations against Sinha of abusing his office (CBI) and his powers to influence the investigation in the wrong-path as well as trying to protect the accused in the high profile coal allocation and 2G cases. 

In his petition against Sinha, Bhushan has alleged that the CBI Director has met top officials of the Reliance Telecom at least 50 times in 15 months at his 2, Janpath residence residence in Delhi.

Citing media reports which allegedly leaked the entries of the visitor’s diary at Sinha’s residence, Bhushan told the apex court that entry register at Sinha’s residence is "very disturbing" and contains "explosive material" in 2G spectrum allocation scam against Reliance Telecom.

Bhushan had also submitted before the court a copy of the entry register at Sinha's house which showed that some of the accused in 2G scam case were his "visitors".

Ranjit Sinha in his defence has told the top court earlier that all charges against him are "patently false".

Though he did not denied the home visits, but has said they were less frequent than claimed by some media reports, and that they did not influence him.

Giving reactions to media, CBI chief said, "I have met officials of Reliance but have I shown favour to anyone?"

He also described a visitors' diary from his home which will be reviewed by the Supreme Court on Thursday as "fake".

But the apex court’s bench comprising of Justices HL Dattu, SA Bobde and AM Sapre, before whom the petition has been made, on Tuesday took cognizance of Bhushan’s petition and sought 61-year-old Ranjit Sinha's response on why an SIT investigation should not be initiated against him for alleged conflict of interest in the probe.

The apex court asked the CBI director to file response in 10 days and posted the matter for further hearing on September 19.

Earlier on Thursday the SC ruled that the media has a right to publish the list of visitors to the house of Sinha, after he had appealed to the apex court to keep the records private.

It is noteworthy to mention that it was on CPIL’s petition that Supreme Court agreed to monitor the CBI's inquiry rupees two years ago into how and why telecom and coal resources were distributed without a transparent bidding process that cost the national exchequer lakhs of crores.