New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday directed chiefs of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Delhi Police to appear and meet in chambers the three judges who are hearing a lawyer’s claim that there was a larger conspiracy to frame Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.
The entire episode is “very disturbing” as it concerns the independence of the judiciary in the country, a three-judge special bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said.
The bench also comprising justices R F Nariman and Deepak Gupta turned down a request of Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to order a court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the matter.
“It is not an inquiry. We are meeting these officers in secret. We don’t want any evidence to be disclosed,” the bench said. It had asked the three officers to meet the judges in chamber at 12:30pm.
The bench said after meeting the directors of the CBI and the IB, and the Delhi Police commissioner, it will reassemble at 3pm to hear the matter again.
Advocate Utsav Singh Bains, who has filed an affidavit claiming a larger conspiracy to frame the CJI on allegations of sexual harassment, placed before the bench material to substantiate his claims.
The bench said “very disturbing” facts have emerged in the matter.
“My submission is that let a special investigation team be constituted under the supervision of this court. The truth must come out in the investigation monitored by the court. This will inspire confidence,” Solicitor General Mehta told the bench.
The bench said full protection should be given to Bains as the court doesn’t want evidence to be destroyed or compromised.
Bains told the court he has some more important piece of evidence and he be allowed to file an additional affidavit.
The bench allowed Bains’ request and said, “It should be handwritten and not typed.”
Bains had filed an affidavit following the unprecedented hearing on Saturday during which Justice Gogoi had said that some “bigger force” was behind the controversy as they wanted to “deactivate” the CJI’s office and he would not stoop too low even to deny these allegations.
The hearing on April 20 in the case was held after stories were published on some news portals about the sexual harassment allegations levelled by a former employee of the apex court against the CJI.
