Facing accusations that he held frequent “late-night meetings” with accused persons to de-rail coal blocks allocations cases, former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha told the Supreme Court on Monday that he did meet “some people,” but not “90 to 130 times” as alleged against him.
The court was hearing an application filed by Common Cause, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, alleging that Mr. Sinha abused authority “to scuttle inquiries, investigations and prosecutions carried out by the CBI in coal block allocation cases and other important cases.”
Mr. Bhushan, in an application, contended that the visitors’ log of 2013 and 2014 maintained at the official residence of Mr. Sinha 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...”
“As CBI Director, I always kept an open house. I maintain that I had meetings with some persons, but I deny having held the meetings as alleged by the petitioner [Common Cause],” senior advocate Vikas Singh defending Mr. Sinha said.
“So do you also admit to the periodicity of these meetings?” asked Justice Kurian Joseph, one of the judges on the Special Bench for coal scam cases led by Justice Madan B. Lokur.
“I deny the periodicity. I have always denied having held meetings 90 or 130 times with some people as alleged by Prashant Bhushan. There is no such admission of midnight meetings,” Mr. Singh countered.
“Besides, where is the question of meeting people 130 times... are we talking about gardeners and housekeepers to meet them so many times. If I wanted to do favours for someone, it can be done over the phone, not through 90 meetings,” Mr. Singh said. Mr. Bhushan has sought an independent probe by a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team into the allegations.
The agency sought the dismissal of the NGO’s application for a SIT probe.
