New Delhi: India’s top court ordered the head of the country’s federal policing agency to excuse himself from a corruption case on Thursday following allegations of wrongdoing.
Central Bureau of Investigation director Ranjit Sinha was ordered off a long-running probe into an alleged scam involving the sale of 2G telecom licences to businesses at throwaway prices.
But India’s chief justice declined to give detailed reasons for the order, saying doing so would tarnish the reputation of the CBI, which handles major criminal investigations.
“Prima facie it appears that information given against Ranjit Sinha is credible and acceptable,” said Chief Justice HL Dattu, who headed a three-judge bench.
“We are not giving elaborate reasons for this order because the CBI as an agency has a reputation, and if we give elaborate orders, it will tarnish their image,” he said.
“We direct Ranjit Sinha not to interfere with the 2G case and recuse himself.”
The court was hearing a petition against Sinha over allegations he might have interfered in the investigation by privately meeting several people accused in the scam.
Sinha has long denied any wrongdoing but added he will “abide by the court order.”
“I don’t know what are you talking about but I have not named any officer as mole or anything,” Sinha told reporters at the agency headquarters here.
A former telecoms minister and a slew of corporate and government officials have been charged over the 2G scam, one of a string of corruption cases that rocked the previous national government.
The scam centred on the 2007-2008 sale of 2G mobile phone licences at cut-rate prices to favour some firms that the national auditor said cost the treasury billions of dollars in lost revenues.
The CBI took up the investigation again in 2013 after tapped phone calls came to light between a former corporate lobbyist, business executives and government bureaucrats over the sale.
The petition involving Sinha has heard that a whistleblower unearthed documents and a visitor’s diary of Sinha’s residence that allegedly showed the names of those who had visited him.
The court did not take kindly to the probe agency’s joint director Ashok Tiwari telling counsel Gopal Shankar Narayan that Venugopal would not appear for the CBI in the ongoing case on allegations that its chief Sinha was interfering in the probe.
The court also did not take well to the presence of a large number of CBI officers in the courtroom, and enquired about the reason for their attendance.
When senior counsel Vikas Singh, representing Sinha, sought to justify this, saying they were assisting the court in giving clarifications on files, if any, Chief Justice Dattu said: “We have not called them. If we need any clarification, we will call them.”
The chief justice then directed all the officers to vacate the court room and attend to their work.
