‘Have they summoned Sinha even once? Have they carried out searches?’
NEW DELHI: Almost two years after registering an FIR against its former boss Ranjit Sinha, the CBI is yet to make any headway in the case against him. This has led to strong speculation that the agency is under pressure to save Sinha and hence is not being able to move proactively in the case.
The CBI had registered the case against Sinha on 24 April 2017 for “abuse of his official position”. This came after a three-judge Supreme court Bench ordered a probe against him in January that year for allegedly trying to scuttle inquiries, investigations and prosecutions that the CBI was carrying out in the coal scam probe, in which senior politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen were involved. The court also ordered constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by CBI officers.
Multiple agency sources told The Sunday Guardian that “nothing substantial” has been done by the investigating team led by S. Kiran, an SP in the agency. The probe was being monitored by then CBI Joint Director Arun Kumar Sharma, who is considered to be close to former CBI Director, Alok Verma, during whose tenure the agency was forced by the court to lodge the FIR against Sinha.
“Have they summoned Sinha even once? Have they carried out searches? The CBI needs to answer what it has done in the case in these nearly two years. Two directors (Alok Verma and Nageswara Rao) have come and gone, yet nothing was done by any one of them against Sinha. The agency is least concerned about the case, something which was even noted by the Supreme Court,” an agency source said. “The unofficial reason behind the lack of urgency is that some political individuals in power are shielding Sinha,” he alleged.
In January last year, the Supreme Court Bench, comprising Justices A.K. Sikri, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph, had chastised the SIT for the “slow pace” of the investigation in the case.
While hearing a PIL in May 2015, the court had held that it was completely inappropriate for Ranjit Sinha, who was then Director CBI, to have met persons accused in the coal block allocation cases without the investigating officer or the team being present. It had also stated that it was necessary to inquire whether any one or more such meetings that Sinha had had with the accused persons and whether the meetings had any impact on the investigations and subsequent charge-sheets or closure reports filed by the CBI.
Following this, a probe was conducted by then CBI Special Director M.L. Sharma into these allegations. Sharma submitted his report in March 2016 after which the Supreme Court directed the constitution of the SIT.
“They are still in the initial phase of verifying the owner of the cars whose number plates were noted down in the visitor register that was at that time at Sinha’s residence. The agency has not questioned any of the people of doubtful integrity who so frequently visited Sinha. The CBI has, in the past, when it has been asked to by its political masters, made headway in similar cases with much less information than what is available in the case of Ranjit Sinha,” the agency official added.