A group of activists and academics, including the former Information Commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi, have written to Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha to order a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the controversial entries in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Ranjit Sinha’s visitors’ diary.
The letter to Justice Lodha, emailed on Tuesday, was signed by RTI activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey, transparency activists Trilochan Sastry and Jagdeep Chhokar, economist Ajit Ranade, author Rajni Bakshi and Mr. Gandhi. Besides a SIT probe for any link between the visitors and the cases, the demands include that the alleged visitors declare whether or not they had met Mr. Sinha and the director make a full disclosure of who all called on him.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan had submitted the alleged visitors’ diary of Mr. Sinha’s residence to the Supreme Court. It contains names of several persons being probed by the CBI, including the 2G spectrum allocation and coal scam cases. Defence counsel claimed that 90 per cent of the names are fake and the court has asked Mr. Bhushan to reveal his source in a sealed envelope.
“This order [to reveal the source] appears to go against the spirit of the Whistle Blower’s Act passed by Parliament... It appears to many citizens that the court is being misled into focussing on whether Mr. Bhushan got the record legitimately. If the allegations are true the CBI director is getting enough opportunity to change, destroy or create evidence,” the letter said.
