Supreme Court puts CBI chief on 10-day notice
10 Sept 2014 5:46 AM IST
On Monday, Sinha was asked by the apex court to respond to the serious allegation leveled against him for meeting the accused in the 2G spectrum allocation and coal scam cases, besides other corporate lobbyists including politicians at his official residence in New Delhi.
As no response came from the CBI chief, the apex court decided to serve him a notice to respond within 10 days (19 September) on why he should not be removed from the post. Earlier in the day, there were rumours that Sinha has decided to go for a month’s leave, but CBI spokespersons ruled out any such move by their director.
The Supreme Court also took into custody the visitors’ diary at Sinha’s residence, submitted by senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who said he got it through anonymous sources. Sinha landed in controversy after the visitors’ diary revealed that he met two top Reliance ADAG officials nearly 50 times in the past one year. It is also being charged that the visits coincided with Sinha’s alleged attempt to file an affidavit which sought to ‘defuse’ the charges against the company in the 2G scam.
Since his joining office as CBI director in 2012, everything was going well for Sinha till the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) in a petition filed before the Supreme Court on 2 September claimed that the visitors’ entry register at Sinha’s residence was ‘very disturbing’ and contained ‘explosive material’ against Reliance Telecom in 2G spectrum allocation scam. Following this, the court asked CPIL counsel Prashant Bhushan, a senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, to place the ‘explosive material’ before it so that it can go through it and examine the issue.
While going through Sinha’s visitors’ list, it was reportedly revealed that not only Ambanis officials, but other influential persons including Kanpur-based meat exporter Moin Qureshi had also visited his residence at least 90 times in the last one and half years. Among other persons who visited Sinha’s residence, there was Devendra Darda, son of Congress MP from Yavatmal, Vijay Darda, who is an accused in coal scam along with his brother Rajendra Darda.
Qureshi’s dubious activities and his connection with people in position of power including a former CBI chief was first reported by Millennium Post on 2 February 2014. Qureshi, an alleged Hawala operator, came into limelight after IT department conducted several raids at his office and residence, which led to seizure of nearly Rs 6 crores in cash and other documents proving his closeness with the politicians, bureaucrats etc.
The issue became murkier with the latest findings of the visitor’s book, which revealed that union food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who is under the scanner for the Bokaro Steel Plant recruitment scam, too visited Sinha’s residence in March this year.
As no response came from the CBI chief, the apex court decided to serve him a notice to respond within 10 days (19 September) on why he should not be removed from the post. Earlier in the day, there were rumours that Sinha has decided to go for a month’s leave, but CBI spokespersons ruled out any such move by their director.
The Supreme Court also took into custody the visitors’ diary at Sinha’s residence, submitted by senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who said he got it through anonymous sources. Sinha landed in controversy after the visitors’ diary revealed that he met two top Reliance ADAG officials nearly 50 times in the past one year. It is also being charged that the visits coincided with Sinha’s alleged attempt to file an affidavit which sought to ‘defuse’ the charges against the company in the 2G scam.
Since his joining office as CBI director in 2012, everything was going well for Sinha till the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) in a petition filed before the Supreme Court on 2 September claimed that the visitors’ entry register at Sinha’s residence was ‘very disturbing’ and contained ‘explosive material’ against Reliance Telecom in 2G spectrum allocation scam. Following this, the court asked CPIL counsel Prashant Bhushan, a senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, to place the ‘explosive material’ before it so that it can go through it and examine the issue.
While going through Sinha’s visitors’ list, it was reportedly revealed that not only Ambanis officials, but other influential persons including Kanpur-based meat exporter Moin Qureshi had also visited his residence at least 90 times in the last one and half years. Among other persons who visited Sinha’s residence, there was Devendra Darda, son of Congress MP from Yavatmal, Vijay Darda, who is an accused in coal scam along with his brother Rajendra Darda.
Qureshi’s dubious activities and his connection with people in position of power including a former CBI chief was first reported by Millennium Post on 2 February 2014. Qureshi, an alleged Hawala operator, came into limelight after IT department conducted several raids at his office and residence, which led to seizure of nearly Rs 6 crores in cash and other documents proving his closeness with the politicians, bureaucrats etc.
The issue became murkier with the latest findings of the visitor’s book, which revealed that union food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who is under the scanner for the Bokaro Steel Plant recruitment scam, too visited Sinha’s residence in March this year.
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