'It's a case of contempt', SC summons Nageswara Rao over transfer of probing officer
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday summoned senior CBI officer M Nageswara Rao over the transfer of officer A K Sharma, who was probing the Bihar shelter home cases, calling it a contempt of court.
The court has asked Rao, the former interim director of CBI, and other officers to be present on February 12 and directed the agency to identify officers who were involved in the transfer of Sharma.
"We are going to take it very very seriously. You have played with order of Supreme Court of India. God help you. Never play with the Supreme Court's order," the Chief Justice told the CBI counsel after he informed the court that two officials including M Nageswara Rao were involved in transferring Sharma.
Sharma, joint director, CBI was the senior most supervising officer in Bihar Shelter home cases and court had in its previous orders said that he should not be transferred.
But on January 17 2019, Sharma's tenure in CBI was curtailed and he was moved out as ADGP CRPF capping a long-drawn internal feud in the agency.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said transferring the CBI officer probing the sexual assault case amounted to a violation of its order. A bench asked the investigating agency to file an affidavit giving an explanation.
"Enough is enough. Children cannot be treated like this. You cannot let your officers treat children this way. Spare the children," the top court told the Bihar government.
The top court asked whether the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) was informed by the government that there was an embargo on Sharma's transfer.
The plight of the Bihar shelter homes was exposed in a report of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). According to an FIR in the case, the TISS put 17 shelter homes in Bihar under the category of 'Grave Concerns'.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court Thursday came down heavily on CBI for transferring its former Joint Director A K Sharma, who was probing Bihar's shelter home cases, out of the agency in violation of the court's order and directed its then interim chief M Nageswara Rao to personally appear before it on February 12.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took serious note of violation of two earlier orders of the apex court and issued contempt notice to Rao for transferring Sharma to the CRPF on January 17 without taking prior permission from the court.
The bench, which also comprised Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, directed CBI Director Rishi Kumar Shukla to give the names of officers who were part of the process in transferring Sharma out of the probe agency.
The top court referred to its earlier orders in which it had asked CBI not to remove Sharma from the team probing Bihar shelter home cases.
Besides Rao, the bench also sought appearance of all other CBI officers who were involved in the transfer process of Sharma on February 12.
It also directed for presence of S Bhasu Ram, in-charge Director of Prosecution CBI, for violating its order.
Several girls were allegedly raped and sexually abused at an NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur and the issue had come to light following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
