According to an official who spoke to DNA, probe into Sinha fell in the rarest of rare cases.
Former CBI director Ranjit Sinha suffered a setback when the Supreme Court dismissed his petition to recall a January 23 order which directed the CBI to probe him for allegedly influencing the coal scam investigations.
"We do not find any reasons to recall our order. The application is dismissed," the bench comprising of Justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and AK Sikri said.
In January, the court had ordered the then newly appointed CBI director Alok Verma to investigate Sinha. According to an official who spoke to DNA, probe into Sinha fell in the rarest of rare cases. Never in the agency's history, that extends over 70 years, has a former CBI director been probed and investigated by the agency itself.
The dismissal came after the bench heard submissions made by senior counsel Vikas Singh representing Sinha. Singh submitted that the report prepared by former CBI Director ML Sharma, based on which the probe was ordered was not made available to him.
"This diary cannot be an admissible evidence to order an inquiry by either ML Sharma or an SIT," Singh said, adding, "the opportunity to respond to the diary was never given to me (Sinha)".
The bench however replied, "The January 23 order was not based on the diary. It was based on ML Sharma's report."
The report was prepared by the court-appointed panel headed by Sharma (submitted on March 4, 2016) that not only authenticated the genuineness of the visitor's log — the diary that exposed Sinha — but also indicted him of influencing the coal scam investigation.
For overlooking the investigation into the coal scam, the apex court further allowed Verma to "take the assistance of two officers of the CBI nominated by the Director with due intimation to this Court". Verma will also have to "take the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) into confidence in respect to the investigations". Special Public prosecutor RS Cheema, who is representing the CBI in the SC appointed court that is looking in to these matters, will assist the CVC on legal issues.
However, advocate Prashant Bhushan who is party to this case objected to the presence of the CVC contending that there was a conflict of interest in the matter. The court dismissed this appeal as well.
DNA which had accessed the visitor's diary of the former CBI chief first broke the story on September 2, 2014, that top officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), among others met CBI director Ranjit Sinha at least 50 times in 15 months at his official residence at 2 Janpath in the Capital.
In its May 14, 2015 order, the top court had held that it was "completely inappropriate for Mr Ranjit Sinha (then CBI Director) to have met persons accused in the coal block allocation cases without the investigating officer being present or without the investigating team being present."
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