CJI case: SC asks IB, CBI, Delhi Police to look into evidence

The Supreme Court on Wednesday called the Directors of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Delhi Police Commissioner to look into the material furnished by advocate Utsav Bains in support of his allegations that Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was framed in a false sexual harassment case.

A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Fali Nariman and Deepak Gupta will meet all the three officers.

Bains on Monday filed a sworn affidavit claiming that a conspiracy had been hatched against the Chief Justice. He blamed an airline founder, gangster Dawood Ibrahim and an alleged fixer and claimed that he was offered up to Rs 1.5 crore by one Ajay to level allegations against Chief Justice Gogoi.

The court asked Bains to appear in the court on Wednesday and produce materials in support of his claims. It also directed the Delhi Police to provide protection to Bains as he apprehended a threat to his life from the alleged conspirators.

After receiving the affidavit (submitted by Advocate Bains in a sealed cover), Justice Gupta said: "We are not disclosing anything about the affidavit. Very serious issues have been raised."

Justice Mishra said: "It is something more than an inquiry, right now we are not on inquiry."

When senior counsel Indira Jaising wanted to address the court on the harassment aspect of the "episode", Justice Mishra said: "We should be more concerned with the contents of the affidavit than anything else."

To Jaising's argument that she was referring to a parallel inquiry and did not know the contents related to the conspiracy into the issue before the court, Justice Mishra said that the proceedings of the court were being disturbed.

Referring to a "very disturbing episode" where two court masters had to be sacked for changing the order of the court on the personal appearance of a corporate tycoon, Justice Mishra said: "This has been happening but no Chief Justice had the courage to take such action. But now action was being taken without fear."

On finding that advocate Bains had not been provided with security as per its Tuesday order, the court directed that he be given security cover till further orders.

When Bains told the court that he wanted to file another affidavit on a critical piece of information that he was working on, Justice Mishra told him to write it in the affidavit with his hand or type it himself to ensure secrecy.

--IANS

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