Aircel-Maxis case: Supreme Court says government free to probe ED officer
Subramanian Swamy has also moved the Supreme Court seeking its permission to implead himself as a party in the plea by Mr Kapur.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court made it clear Wednesday that the Centre was free to probe the “disproportionate assets” allegations against Rajeswar Singh, the Enforcement Directorate officer who is probing the 2G as well as the Aircel-Maxis case against former Union minister P. Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram.
A vacation bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, in its order, said that keeping in view that the chargesheet had already been filed, it was open to the government to decide whether Rajeshwar Singh can be assigned any further role in the Aircel-Maxis probe.
The court, which had earlier granted protection to Mr Rajeswar Singh against any inquiry, modified its interim order and left it to the government on conducting the probe against him. Additional solicitor-general Vikra-mjit Banerjee assured the court that it would take the Aircel-Maxis probe to its logical conclusion as per the directions issued in March this year.
When the bench observed that “no officer should be under any cloud”, the ASG said the government was willing to investigate the allegations that Mr Singh had amassed disproportionate assets and handed over a communication in a sealed cover to the bench. When the counsel for Mr Singh opposed any such probe as he had been protected from inquiry, the bench said: “You are simply an officer. You can’t be given a blanket clean chit. Everybody is accountable. You must be accountable for any action. We need to ensure you are accountable. We don’t want to damage you or comment against you. There are very serious allegations against you.”
Rajneesh Kapur, who claims to be an investigative journalist, had filed a petition in the court seeking an investigation against Mr Singh for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Mr Singh has also filed a separate contempt plea against Mr Kapur and has claimed that attempts were made to scuttle or delay the probe into the Aircel-Maxis case.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has also moved the Supreme Court seeking its permission to implead himself as a party in the plea by Mr Kapur. In his application, Dr Swamy said Mr Kapur filed the petition in an attempt to delay the ongoing investigation in the Aircel-Maxis case.