The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday sought the Supreme Court’s directive to register a criminal case against Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), its advocate Prashant Bhushan and general secretary Kamini Jaiswal for giving false evidence in the apex court.
The CBI, in an application, said Mr. Bhushan, acting for CPIL, had made “deliberately misleading” statements, both on oath and in court, making it a fit case for perjury.
It said how, during October 8 court hearing, Mr. Bhushan told a Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde that some “unknown persons” had left the original of the visitors’ entries register of CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, which allegedly shows that he privately and frequently met accused persons in the 2G and coal scam cases at his residence.
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Mr. Bhushan, the application contends, had said these unidentified persons left the documents on the night of September 7.
It says but when the court requested him to confidentially reveal the source of his information to it in an order dated September 15, Mr. Bhushanfiled an affidavit, this time saying that the copies of the register was got on September 1, and that too from a “trustworthy and reliable source”.
The affidavit of the NGO, whose PIL had led to the Supreme Court cancelling 122 2G Spectrum licences, had further informed the court that it would not disclose the identity of its whistleblower for fear that some harm may befall the person, or he may be even killed.
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The CBI contends that these “contradictory statements” showed that Mr. Bhushan had “active knowledge” of the source’s identity even as he “misled” the court on October 8 that it was some unknown persons who passed the register over to him.