SC EXAMINES CBI BID TO SCUTTLE 2G PROBE
Wednesday, 13 August 2014 | Abraham Thomas | New Delhi
Charges based on media reports and I deny them: CBI chief
The Supreme Court on Tuesday began examining allegations of interference by CBI Director in the ongoing 2G scam trial after a note allegedly written by the probe agency to reopen the charge sheet against Reliance Telecom surfaced in a news report published recently. CBI Director Ranjit Sinha has denied the charges.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for NGO Centre for PIL, told the Supreme Court (SC) Bench monitoring the case that the matter was “serious”. He alleged that the Director was trying to scuttle the probe against Reliance and had shunted out a supervising officer handling the 2G investigation, which is at an advanced stage of trial.
The Bench, headed by Justice HL Dattu, ordered the CBI to produce the note prepared by DIG Santosh Rastogi by September 2. Along with it, the CBI was ordered to bring a copy of the three-page opinion given by CBI Special Public Prosecutor UU Lalit, in which he advised the Director against any such move.
The Bench, also comprising Justices PC Ghose and SA Bobde, asked senior advocate KK Venugopal, who appeared for the CBI, to get the relevant records by the next date. Bhushan insisted that Rastogi be reinstated as he was shunted out to the Crime Branch for telling Lalit about the note being moved at the instance of the Director.
“It is correct. Rastogi is no longer supervising the 2G probe,” Venugopal said. When contacted by The Pioneer, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha said the charges leveled by Prashant Bhushan were based on media reports and the agency would submit all relevant documents to the court. “We’ve nothing to hide. The charges are based on media reports and I deny them,” he said.
The CBI chief also said that Rastogi was transferred, but was still very much part of the team. “He was never relieved,” Sinha said. Bhushan reminded the SC that the CBI officers handling the 2G case were protected by the court’s orders and could not be removed till the investigation was complete. The court told Venugopal to “rectify” the matter (removal of Rastogi) immediately.
By the next date, the SC asked Venugopal to suggest a panel of three names to be appointed as Special Public Prosecutor to succeed Lalit as he is due to be appointed an SC judge. The team assisting Lalit would, however, continue to assist in the trial. Venugopal informed the court that the 2G case trial was at a crucial stage as 153 prosecution witnesses and 35 defence witnesses had so far been examined. He filed the latest report indicating status of investigation into the Aircel-Maxis case.
Following the opinion by Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi to prosecute former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in allotment of spectrum to Maxis, owned by Malaysian tycoon T Ananda Krishnan after its takeover of Aircel. From the CBI and ED reports separately filed in court, the Bench gathered that a decision had been taken by CBI to charge sheet Maran despite non-cooperation from Malaysia, that insisted on proof of criminality to allow information against Ananda Krishnan.
Venugopal said: “Based on domestic evidence collected, we will file the charge sheet by the end of August.” Along with it, the CBI counsel indicated that a separate preliminary enquiry had been launched against Tata Wireless acknowledging a Serious Frauds Investigation Report brought forth by advocate Bhushan indicating how Tata too was disentitled to bid for spectrum as it held stake in Unitech as its holding company similar to Swan being the front company of Reliance.http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/sc-examines-cbi-bid-to-scuttle-2g-probe.html