Supreme Court tells CBI to probe ex-boss in coal scam

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to initiate probe against former CBI chief Ranjit Sinha for allegedly interfering in and influencing coal scam investigations to favour a few.

A three-judge bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri passed the order on a petition filed by the NGO Common Cause, which drew the court’s attention to the diary maintained by Mr Sinha. Entries in Mr Sinha’s diary, the petition said, showed that prominent personalities and industrialists met him at his residence to scuttle the probe.

“We are prima facie satisfied and convinced that Sinha had abused his position and authority as CBI chief,” the SC bench said.

The bench directed the new CBI chief, Alok Verma, to set up a Special Investigation Team to conduct the probe. It asked the SIT to look into the report prepared by another former CBI director, M.L. Sharma, against Mr Sinha’s conduct and other relevant documents and conduct an investigation into the charge of abuse of authority with a view to scuttling investigations and prosecutions being carried out by the CBI in the coal block allocation cases.

The bench said the CBI director can take the assistance of two officers of his choice, and he could also take the Chief Vigilance Commissioner into confidence.

“Since the director, CBI, will undoubtedly require the assistance of somebody well conversant with the law, we request R.S. Cheema, who is already a special public prosecutor in the coal block allocation cases, to assist the director, CBI, and his team on legal issues,” the court said.

The bench, however, added, “We make it clear that we have not expressed any opinion on the merits of the allegations made by the petitioner or make any comment on the contents of the report prepared by M.L. Sharma and his team, except to say that a prima facie case has definitely been made out for investigation into the abuse of authority by Ranjit Sinha. We need hardly emphasise that the matter is of considerable public importance and should be taken up with due earnestness by the director, CBI.”

Mr Sinha retired on December 2, 2014, after serving a two-year term as CBI chief.

In 2014, the Supreme Court cancelled the allocation of more than 200 coal blocks, finding the process arbitrary and illegal.

Last year, on July 12, the Supreme Court had reserved its order on the issue after attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told the bench that the panel headed by Mr Sharma has held that Mr Sinha’s meetings with some high-profile accused in the scam, prima facie indicated that there was an attempt to influence the investigation.