Supreme Court panel says Ranjit Sinha interfered in coal probe

Former CBI director Ranjit Sinha, who was mired in controversy during his tenure after diary entries revealing details of his meetings with coal scam accused became public, was on Tuesday indicted by a Supreme Court-appointed panel, which held him guilty of interfering with the investigation in the coal block allocation cases.

Attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the government, said though the report is largely against Mr Sinha, the former CBI chief did not reverse the decision of his investigating officers in closing coal cases. The court reserved its order on what action needs to be taken against Mr Sinha.

The court had asked former CBI special director M.L. Sharma to probe whether the meetings the former CBI director had with coal block allocation accused and others had in any way impacted the investigation and subsequent chargesheets or closure reports filed by the CBI in the cases. The report says that the diary noting of the entries at the residence of Mr Sinha is genuine.