No direct link between Ranjit Sinha and Moin Qureshi: Government to SC

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday held out a face-saver of sorts for beleaguered CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, who is facing allegations of meeting people with links to some accused in the coal and 2G scams. The government told the Supreme Court that it found no "direct" link between Sinha and a controversial meat trader who allegedly was a regular visitor at the CBI chief's official residence.
Instead, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi told the court that the government had intercepted BlackBerry messages between Moin Qureshi, the meat trader, and former CBI chief AP Singh that did not behove a CBI head. The top court, which is monitoring the coal block allocation case probe, had asked Rohatgi for a report on the investigations launched against Qureshi by the I-T Department.
The report was supplied to SC in a sealed cover, but A-G revealed some of its contents, claiming though Qureshi was heard asking other people over phone to come and see a former bureaucrat who would help them, there were no direct references to Sinha.

Sinha can now retire on December 2, as scheduled, unless another bench, which is dealing with the 2G case, finds something blameworthy against him over the controversial entry register showing him meeting some accused in that case.

Rohatgi's statement pointed a needle of suspicion against former CBI Director Singh, now a UPSC member. "Qureshi was in touch with him on a daily basis on a variety of subjects regarding helping accused in some other cases, not in these cases," he said. "Such conduct is wholly unbecoming of a CBI director." Attempts to reach Singh failed.