SC seeks CVC views on way to deal with CBI ex-chief' conduct

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in what way it could assist the court in probing allegations that meetings the then CBI director Ranjit Sinha had with several coal block allocation scan accused impacted utcome of the cases.

A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice A.K.Sikri said: "We are asking the CVC to tell us what to do" in carrying forward the probe against Sinha, as Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi sought some time to speak to the Chief Vigilance Commissioner on the issue and get back to the court.

The entire issue came as Rohatgi felt that the arrangements and support that has been sought by the Central Bureau of Investigation's former special director M.L.Sharma to undertake the task amounted to some kind of a full-fledged probe against Sinha and he had no legal footing to undertake the task.

Telling the court that CVC had no independent investigation wing of its own, he said then "It (probe) has to go to police" as "this is in the nature of police inquiry".

Appearing for petitioner NGO Common Cause, counsel Prashant Bhushan told the court that the paraphernalia sought by former senior CBI officer was not a big one.

"I don't see anything particularly wrong in his demanding the staff as it would involve investigation. I don't think that the staff he has sought is so large or big and alarming," said Bhushan.

However, senior counsel Amarender Sharan appearing for CBI told the court that instead of going into all these exercises, the court could look into 14 cases in which RC has been filed.

In the last hearing of the matter July 20, the court was informed that Sharma has agreed to head the SIT that would investigate whether the meetings that Sinha had with coal block allocation accused and others had in any way impacted the investigations and subsequent charge sheets or closure reports filed by the CBI in the coal block allocation scam cases.

The court had granted him time to put in place the team that would assist him in the investigation.

However, the paraphernalia and the supporting staff that has been sought by Sharma has put the plan into difficulty.