New CBI director Alok Verma to probe former chief in coal scam

Three days after he took charge, the Supreme Court has handed new CBI director Alok Verma the difficult task of setting up an SIT to probe the agency's controversial former chief Ranjit Sinha in connection with his alleged abuse of power and authority to save several accused in the sensational coal scam and influence investigations.

The SC said on Monday that it felt Sinha was prima-facie guilty, but said further investigation is required into Sinha's "wholly inappropriate" meetings with several accused in the coal scam at his residence. The meetings were revealed by a visitor's diary which was submitted to the court by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, to ascertain if it had any impact on the probe or helped the accused.

Also read | All you need to know about the new CBI director

On July 11, in a major setback to Sinha, an SC-appointed panel headed by former CBI special director ML Sharma told the apex court that prima facie it seems the former CBI director did try to influence probe in the coal scam. It also said the diary was genuine.

"In our opinion, since there has been a change of guard in the CBI, we would continue to repose our faith in the impartiality of the agency to look into the report prepared by ML Sharma and other relevant documents and conduct an investigation (as a Special Investigating Team) into the abuse of authority prima facie committed by Ranjit Sinha with a view to scuttle enquires, investigations and prosecutions being carried out by the CBI in coal block allocation cases", a bench headed by Justice MB Lokur said.

The bench asked Verma to indicate on the next date of hearing the composition of his team and the time required to complete investigations.

Also read | Probe ex-CBI chief Ranjit Sinha's role in coal scam: Supreme Court