The Financial Express (Delhi Edition)
SC refuses to restrain media from reporting on 2G & coal scam cases Bhushan files fresh plea to remove CBI chief from investigation
Setback for CBI chief as court cites freedom of press
IN a setback for CBI director Ranjit Sinha, Supreme court on Thurday refused to restrain media from broadcasting and publishing news giving the names of 2G spectrum and coal scam accused who “visited” him at his residence.
A Bench headed by Justice HL Dattu asked CPIL counsel Prashant Bhushan to file an affidavit annexing the documents pertaining to the entry list of visitors at Sinha’s residence.
“We have gone through the documents. We cannot take cognisance of this until it is placed on record,” it said, while deciding to give an urgent hearing on Monday at 10 AM, half an hour before the nor mal court time.
The court instructed Bhushan to put the documents in the sealed cover and not share them with the government.
However, senior counsel Vikas Singh, appearing for Sinha, opposed any hearing on the matter saying allegations that he had met and favoured influential persons associated with accused in the 2G spectrum and coal scam cases are “patently false” and an “attack on his reputation and a serious invasion of his privacy”.
The CBI director asked Bhushan to reveal the source of the documents, including copies of the visitors’ logbooks maintained at his residence, allegedly showing he met company officials even as CBI was prosecuting them.
“Please let him reveal how he secured the documents. Has he secured them in a manner known to law?” Singh said, adding the apex court should refuse to entertain such patently false accusations for the reason that the source of documents were not revealed.
“People like Prashant Bushan are damaging the reputation of a very high functionary of the gover nment,” he said, drawing the court's attention on how the documents were leaked to media despite specific orders from the court to keep them in sealed cover.
“What is the point of the court ordering that the documents be kept in sealed covers when it is splashed in media. He (the CBI director) occupies a very sensitive position handling some of the most important cases in the country. His reputation is at stake now,” the senior counsel said.
Assuring Singh that if Bhushan does not indicate the source of his documents in his affdavit, the Bench responded by saying that “we will certainly ask him”.
However, Justice Dattu said the court had no control over other things happening outside the court. “The press has its freedom, but we also hope the press is aware of the sensitivity of this matter,” the bench observed.
The court then set for Monday the hearing on Bhushan's petition that there is a conflict of interest if the CBI chief continued to probe the high profile 2G and coal scam cases.
Bhushan had on Tuesday told the court that the guest register at Sinha’s residence revealed “very disturbing” and “explosive material”. This, according to him, implied that investigations of the case by CBI may have been compromised by the meetings that Sinha had with some of the accused or their representatives from companies being probed in the 2G spectrum case. He also sought a court directive asking Sinha to recuse himself from the investigation into the 2G spectrum case.
On Wednesday, speaking to a news channel, Sinha admitted that he had met the company officials “once or twice”, but had not done them any favours. New Delhi, Sept 4: Activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Thursday filed a fresh application in the Supreme Court seeking removal of CBI director Ranjit Sinha from overseeing the coal scam probe and setting of a special investigating team (SIT) to determine whether he misused his office to help some of the accused, who met him regularly at his residence.
Sinha said he was ready to recuse himself from the investigations if the apex court wanted him to do so.
Bhushan had earlier filed a similar plea to keep Sinha away from the 2G spectrum investigations.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha is likely to hear Bhushan’s fresh application on Tuesday.
Bhushan's demand is based on visitors’ diary maintained at the CBI chief's residence. The entries reportedly showed that Sinha met representatives of Reliance Telecom, a company being investigated in the telecom scam, and Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and his son Devendra Darda, who were being investigated in a case of illegal allocation of coal block.
Besides, Sinha also met Subodh Kant Sahay, former Union minister, whose brother’s company is one of the beneficiaries of the allocation of coal blocks and is being investigated by the CBI, the activist lawyer said.
“Sinha’s frequent meetings at his residence with the accused in prominent cases like coal block allocation scam and 2G scam are the attempts to damage the CBI’s case in 2G cases, for which he was strongly criticised by then senior public prosecutor UU Lalit,” the application stated.
Sinha said: “I will recuse myself if the court wants me to. The apex court is hearing the matter related to the 2G case and a petition in coal scam has also been filed in connection to my supervision. I have done no wrong in the trial and investigations of both the 2G and coal scams,” he said.
Filing the application for Common Cause, an NGO, in the coal scam, Bhushan said the CBI director’s role in the investigation deserves scrutiny as he had last year “unauthorisedly shared coal scam status probe report" (meant to be confidential for the court) with the then UPA government.
He also alleged the CBI director and senior officers forced investigating officers to file closure reports in cases where FIRs have been filed in coal scam cases. Last week, the Supreme Court had declared that all 218 coal block allocations since 1993 are illegal. It has not yet decided whether to cancel the licenses en masse.