In an important judgement delivered today (14th May 2015) by a 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice A.K. Sikri, has held that it was completely inappropriate for Mr. Ranjit Sinha, former CBI Director, to have met persons accused in the Coal Block Allocation case without the investigating officer being present or without the investigating team being present. The Supreme Court also held that a probe is needed to look into the question whether any such meetings of Mr. Sinha with accused persons had any impact on the investigations and subsequent charge sheets or closure reports filed by the CBI. The Supreme Court has sought assistance in this matter from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and this matter has now been kept on 6th July, 2015.
It is pertinent to point out that the NGO Common Cause had requested the Supreme Court to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the abuse of authority committed by the then CBI Director Mr. Ranjit Sinha in order to scuttle inquires, investigations and prosecutions being carried out by the CBI in coal block allocation cases and other important cases.
In its judgment, the Supreme Court took note of the fact that on 8th May, 2013, it had been directed that the Director, CBI would ensure the secrecy of inquiries and investigations into the allocation of coal blocks and that no access of any nature whatsoever would be provided to any person or authority including any Minister of the Central Cabinet, Law Officers, Advocates of the CBI, Director of Prosecution and Officials/Officers of the Central Government.
It was in this context that, the Supreme Court noted with considerable concern that neither Mr. Ranjit Sinha nor the CBI denied that Mr. Ranjit Sinha had met some persons, including the Dardas (Vijay Darda and Devendra Darda), who were accused of criminality in the Coal Block Allocations case without the investigating officer or the investigating team being present.
The Supreme Court also observed that there cannot at all be any justification for Mr. Ranjit Sinha, former CBI Director, to meet any accused person in a criminal case where investigation was underway, without the investigating officer being present, whether it was in his office or at his residence and that too several times including late at night. The court noted that if at all Mr. Sinha as the Director of the CBI had to meet any accused person for obtaining his point of view on the allegations against him, he should have done so in the presence of the investigating officer or the investigating team. The fact that Mr. Sinha admittedly met some accused persons in the absence of the investigating officer or the investigating team was held in itself to be a cause for concern.
The Supreme Court further observed as under:
“What is of importance is that as justice must not only be done but it must also appear to have been done, similarly, investigations must not only be fair but must appear to have been conducted in a fair manner. The fact that Mr. Sinha met some of the accused persons without the investigating officer or the investigating team being present disturbs us with regard to the fairness of the investigations. This is all the more so if we keep in mind the fact that in the 2G scam investigations, this Court had concluded in its order dated 20th November, 2011 that Mr. Ranjit Sinha should not interfere in the investigation and prosecution of the case relating to the 2G spectrum allocation and to recuse himself from the case. That an SIT was not ordered in the 2G spectrum case is not relevant. A view was taken that Mr. Sinha should be directed to not interfere in the investigations in that case and that, coupled with his meeting accused persons in the Coal Block Allocation case without the investigating officer being present, is enough to persuade us that some further inquiry is necessary to ensure that the investigations have been fair in the coal block allocation cases where Mr. Sinha has had one or more meetings with one or more accused persons.”
Thus, the conduct of the former CBI Director meeting the accused persons in the coalgate scam cases was held to be highly inappropriate requiring further probe in the matter.
In the aforesaid judgment, the Supreme Court also rejected the request made by Mr. Ranjit Sinha to direct police to register an FIR against Mr. Prashant Bhushan, the Petitioner Association (i.e. Common Cause) and Mr. Kamal Kant Jaswal for making deliberate and intentional false statements on oath and before the Supreme Court in the above proceedings. The court held that if somebody accesses documents that ought to be carefully maintained by the CBI, it is difficult to find fault with such a whistle blower particularly when his or her action is in public interest. In these circumstances, rejecting the contention of Mr. Sinha, the Supreme Court held that Mr. Prashant Bhushan or Common Cause or Mr. Kamal Kant Jaswal did not have any intention to mislead the Court in any manner and that they did not commit perjury. Likewise, the Supreme Court held that the file notes in this case cannot be described as an ‘official secret’ for the purposes of prosecuting Mr. Prashant Bhushan under the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
This order of the Supreme Court has thus come as a major embarrassment for the former CBI Director Mr. Ranjit Sinha.
Detailed judgment in this case can be seen online here.
