The Supreme Court-appointed Special Public Prosecutor in 2G cases, Anand Grover, on Thursday said there was credibility in the allegations of the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, accusing the CBI Director Ranjit Sinha of shielding the accused in the 2G spectrum investigation.
The NGO had charged Sinha with “preventing” the filing of a charge sheet in the Aircel-Maxis deal, “weakening” the case against Reliance and 2G-accused Shahid Balwa and transferring a senior officer, Santosh Rastogi, out of the 2G probe.
The NGO had access to the visitor’s logbook at the residence of Sinha which showed him meeting accused persons often. Mr Sinha had called for the name of the person who made available the logbook to be revealed.
The three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu agreed with the argument of Mr. Grover that if the credibility of the information supplied could be proved, there was no need to disclose the identity of the informant.
This was closely followed by Mr. Bhushan revealing that he has accessed the visitors’ register at Mr. Sinha’s residence. The logbook, he alleged, showed that Mr. Sinha had frequently met with persons who have been accused in the 2G cases.
Mr. Sinha, through his counsel Vikas Singh, challenged the veracity of the allegations. He demanded that Mr. Bhushan first reveal the identity of his source.
The turning point in Thursday’s hearing came when senior advocate Anand Grover, the Supreme Court-appointed Special Public Prosecutor in 2G cases, submitted there was credibility in the NGO’s allegations. The court had earlier sought Mr. Grover’s assistance in the matter.
“ We have been monitoring the 2G case. They (NGO) had raised some suspicions. Now our Special Public Prosecutor also seconded this... It appears to us things are not well ”
“We have been monitoring the 2G case. They (NGO) had raised some suspicions. Now our Special Public Prosecutor also seconded this... It appears to us things are not well,” Chief Justice Dattu reacted.
It dismissed Mr. Sinha’s denial that he had delayed the chargesheet in the Aircel-Maxis case. He had said his move to first seek legal opinion from the Attorney-General could not be construed as “favouring somebody”.
“You may have your justification, but that justification should also appeal to us,” the CJI said.
The court dismissed Mr. Sinha’s defence that Mr. Rastogi was only a “supervisory officer”, and his transfer was one of several.
“We ordered that nobody will touch the 2G investigation team. When a smart man raised questions, you decided to clear the path off him. You throw him out. This is our understanding from the notes given by the SPP. Your conduct was in overreach of the court’s orders,” CJI responded.
“Better for you to recuse (from 2G cases). After going through Mr. Grover’s notes, if we write in our order on what is happening, it may damage the reputation of a great institution (CBI)... People still come here asking for CBI to investigate their cases... that reputation will be damaged,” Chief Justice Dattu observed.