An NGO whose PIL petition led the Supreme Court to declare the allocation of 218 coal blocks as illegal, moved the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking the recusal of CBI Director Ranjit Sinha from all investigation and prosecution conducted by the agency into the coal scam.
The NGO Common Cause, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, wants the Supreme Court to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the “abuse of authority committed by the CBI Director to scuttle inquiries, investigations and prosecutions carried out by the agency in coal block allocation cases and other important cases.”
The application comes even as Mr. Sinha is facing a storm triggered by allegations levelled by Mr. Bhushan that the CBI chief held frequent meetings at his residence with the accused in the 2G and coal scam cases.
The application said these alleged meetings were clear proof that the CBI investigation was severely compromised.
The application was filed on a day a Bench of Justice H.L. Dattu heard and issued directions to Mr. Bhushan to put on record his allegations in the form of an affidavit. The court received documents, which allegedly include copies of the visitors’ logbook at Mr. Sinha’s residence, in a sealed cover.
The application recounted how the Supreme Court had “admonished” Mr. Sinha for altering a CBI status report in the coal scam cases at the instance of the UPA-II government before it was filed in the Supreme Court in March-April 2013.
“He informed the Supreme Court that he changed the status report at the instance of the Union Law Minister and two joint secretary-level officers of the PMO and the Ministry of Coal, and that several findings of the CBI were dropped from the status report,” the application said.
It contended that Mr. Sinha repeatedly overruled investigating officers and “forced” them not to file FIRs in the coal scam cases. This was the situation until the court ordered the Central Vigilance Commission to whet the cases in which the probe officers had sought registration of FIRs but were not allowed to.
It said the delay caused by the CBI chief resulted in the agency filing only two charge sheets in the coal scam cases and that too only for the offence of cheating.
