Bhushan has filed a PIL before the Supreme Court seeking framing of guidelines due to lack of transparency in the CVC appointment. The court during the last hearing had permitted the government to go ahead with the selection of names but asked to place before it all the records pertaining to the appointment. The matter will come up for hearing in July.
A day after the Central government cleared the name for Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), noted advocate Prashant Bhushan has raised objection to former CBDT chairperson K V Choudhry's selection for the post of CVC.
Bhushan has filed a PIL before the Supreme Court seeking framing of guidelines due to lack of transparency in the CVC appointment. The court during the last hearing had permitted the government to go ahead with the selection of names but asked to place before it all the records pertaining to the appointment. The matter will come up for hearing in July.
The lawyer said that on May 20, he had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh and finance minister Arun Jaitley not to select former Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT) chief Choudhry alleging "his name figured four times in the list of persons who visited former CBI director Ranjit Sinha at his official residence (2 Janpath in Delhi)."
He referred to the apex court's May 14 order for investigation into Sinha's meetings with various accused persons, including meat exporter-cum-hawala dealer Moin Quershi in 2G, illegal coal block allocations and other cases.
"During the tenure of Sinha as CBI chief, Choudhry's role was investigated by the agency in'stock guru" scam. Choudhry, who was chairman and member (investigation) of income tax, was apparently investigating hawala dealer Moin Qureshi who repeatedly visited Sinha," Bhushan said.
In addition, he alleged "Choudhry was the then DGIT, Delhi when the Radia tapes were intercepted and did not take any action on evidence available with him. It was the Supreme Court which had to intervene and order the CBI to investigate."?
Bhushan further accused Choudhry of delaying the probe in the black money case.
"Chudhary was also in-charge of investigating HSBC account holders for almost three years. Until Supreme Court appointed the SIT, there were almost no progress in the income tax investigation under him. At the time SIT was formed, income tax department had not filed even a single prosecution case against HSBC account holders," Bhushan alleged.
"Choudhry wrongfully reduced the undeclared wealth of M/s Flora and Fauna, a company of businessman late Ponty Chadha by over Rs 200 crore. One of the HSBC account holders so protected was Ponty Chaddha's son-in -law Gurdeep Kochar." the lawyer alleged.?
When approached by dna for his reactions on Bhushan's allegations, Choudhary refused to comment saying, "It is not appropriate for me to comment anything at this moment."
The Central government had on Monday finalised the names for the chiefs of Central Information Commissioner (CIC) and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and is likely to announce the same after the approval of President, who will be back in Indian later this week.
Senior-most Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma is tipped to be new Chief Information Commissioner and Choudary is expected to be the new CVC.
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