A Supreme Court-appointed committee, led by former Special Director of the CBI M.L. Sharma, has concluded that a visitors’ logbook, maintained at the official residence of the former chief of the country's premier investigative agency, Ranjit Sinha, is genuine.
The damaging conclusion provides ammunition to allegations that Mr. Sinha had frequent meetings with the prime accused “to scuttle inquiries, investigations and prosecutions carried out by the CBI in the coal block allocation cases and other important cases”.
An anonymous whistleblower had leaked the logbook to advocate Prashant Bhushan, the civil rights lawyer who represented NGO Common Cause, which moved the court against the coal block allocations and the huge losses suffered due to skewed allocation.
Mr. Bhushan had passed on the logbook to the Supreme Court without revealing his source.
Mr. Bhushan had alleged that the visitors’ log of 2013 and 2014 showed meetings, “several of them late at night, at his residence with several accused persons in prominent cases like Coal scam, 2G scam, and with Hawala operators...”
The Sharma Committee, set up to conduct an independent enquiry into the veracity of the entries in the logbook and allegations against Mr. Sinha, had submitted its confidential report relating to alleged misconduct of Mr. Sinha in April this year.
AG’s comment’s sought
A Special Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri in turn had sought Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi's assistance, giving him the panel report for his views.
But Mr. Rohatgi submitted that the Sharma panel has indicated that the very nature of Mr. Sinha's meetings pointed to an attempt to influence sensitive investigations into these high-stakes cases.
Reprimanding the CBI for the sluggish pace of its investigations into the coal scam cases, the Bench reserved orders on steps to be taken on the findings provided by the Sharma Committee.
‘Sad day for CBI’
Former CBI director R. K. Raghavan, in a written response to the developments told The Hindu: “It is a sad day for the CBI. I am happy that the panel did not attempt to cover up the misdeed of a former CBI Chief, despite the clout he wielded.”
