New Delhi: Activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to remove CBI Director Ranjit Sinha and initiate disciplinary and criminal action against him for allegedly abusing his official position to protect accused in high profile corruption cases including 2G spectrum and coal block allocation scam.
In his letter to Modi, the lawyer who is appearing for two NGOs -- Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and Common Cause -- in 2G matter and coalgate -- alleged that Sinha was "acting in concert" with the accused and trying to influence or derail the investigation/prosecution of those cases.
The letter, copy of which was forwarded to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, said such "misconduct" is completely unbecoming of a senior police officer, holding the top post of the premier probe agency of the country and required criminal prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
He said instances of Sinha's alleged misconduct are given in detail in the latest affidavit filed by him before the Supreme Court.
In the letter, Bhushan has referred to the issues raked up by him in the apex court relating to the "entry register" at Sinha's residence, which he claimed, showed that top executives of companies accused in 2G and coalgate met him frequently.
The lawyer has also raised the issue of Sinha's attempt to "interfere" with the probe of Aircel-Maxis deal and keeping at bay Santosh Rastogi, DIG from the 2G matters. Sinha has denied the charge.
Bhushan mentioned names of some high-profile persons associated with one or the other cases who met with Sinha.
In the letter, he said, "When these facts came to light, Sinha got the CBI to issue a statement that these revelations are a lie and no such entry register exists.
"Later, he issued a statement that this is tantamount to an invasion of his privacy and he would sue the NGO, which has raised this issue before the Supreme Court in a PIL, for perjury.
"And then he issued a statement that some entries in the register are genuine while the others are forged. Finally he again changed his statement and stated that there is nothing wrong in meeting the accused," it said.
"It is important to take these actions urgently so that the dignity of the post which he is occupying could be restored and also the important corruption cases, which are being handled by the CBI under his supervision, could be saved from getting derailed," the letter said.
Here is the full text of Prashant Bhushan's letter written PM Narendra Modi.
To,
Shri Narendra Modi
The Hon'ble Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister Office,
South Block,
New Delhi
Subject: Complaint requesting the removal of the Director, CBI and appropriate disciplinary and criminal action for abusing his official position to protect the accused involved in high profile corruption cases.
Dear Shri Modiji
I am writing this letter to bring to your notice very serious and shocking revelations, relating to the Director, Central Bureau of Investigation, Shri Ranjit Sinha, which have come into the public domain in the last few days. These revelations reflect very poorly on his integrity and show that Mr. Sinha has indulged in acts which are completely unbecoming of a senior police officer, holding the top post of the premier investigating agency of our country.
Mr. Sinha has been found to be acting in concert with some of the accused of high profile corruption cases like the 2g Scam and Coal Block allocation scam and, thereby, trying to influence or derail the investigation/prosecution of those cases.
An abuse of the official position by any public servant to aid or abet illegal act or to give undue favour to any third party amounts to grave misconduct and renders him liable for disciplinary action for the violation of Rule 3 of the CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 and also for criminal prosecution under section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The instances of Mr. Sinha's misconduct are given in detail in the latest affidavit filed by me before the Hon'ble Supreme Court which is annexed hereto as Annexure A1. Some of them are briefly mentioned herein below:
(I) The Director, CBI, has made repeated attempts to jeopardize the CBI's prosecution case against accused M/s Reliance Telecom, its accused officials Mr. Gautam Doshi, Mr Hari Nair, Mr. Surendra Pipala, as well as the case against M/s Swan Telecom, Mr.
Shahid Balwa and Mr. Vinod Goenka. He tried to completely reverse the stand the CBI has taken in its charge-sheet and before the trial court qua afore-named accused by taking a decision to file separate reply affidavits in the Supreme Court in response to the petition filed by 6 accused despite the fact that the CBI had already filed a consolidated reply affidavit which was settled by the then Special Public Prosecutor, who was appointed by the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the draft affidavits, reversing the earlier stands, were prepared and sent to the Spl. Public Prosecutor.
The then ld. Spl. Public Prosecutor, realising the full import of the CBI filing the proposed affidavits, categorically stated the proposed affidavits should not be filed at any stage under any circumstances and highlighted the fact that the proposed affidavits were contradictory to the CBI's own chargesheets and stated that any such attempt would tantamount to weakening the case of the Prosecution in a fundamental way.
(II) Apparently, on 22.07.2014, the CBI Director entered a noting in response to the then Spl. Public Prosecutor's letter stating that since the Spl. PP is being appointed as a Judge of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, CBI would "rake up" the issue after he is so appointed.
(III) The DIG, Shri Santosh Rastogi, who is the investigating officer, had requested to be relieved from the investigations as the CBI Director was repeatedly trying to destroy the case. After this, Shri Rastogi was transferred out of the 2G case investigations by the CBI Director because of the firm stand taken by him. This was done despite the fact that the Hon'ble Supreme Court has directed the CBI and ED not to make any change in the composition of the 2G investigation team without the leave of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Furthermore, the Director CBI initiated disciplinary proceedings against Shri Rastogi and ordered that a cautionary note be issued to the officer.
(IV) The CBI had developed a water-tight case against former telecom minister, Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, for favouring M/s Aircel, after it was bought over by M/s Maxis, by granting it several licenses which were refused earlier. The CBI had found a money trail in which a whopping Rs 650 crores were invested by M/s Maxis to buy shares at a hugely inflated price in a new company called Sun Direct TV, owned by Mr. Maran's brother. All the investigation officers had opined that a chargesheet must be filed and even the Director of Prosecution had said that chargesheet ought to be filed in the matter. But the CBI Director overruled them and stated that no case is made out.
(V) As per the CBI Manual, where there is a difference of opinion between CBI Director and Director of Prosecution, the opinion of the Attorney General is sought. Hence, an opinion of the Attorney General was sought, who also confirmed what everyone else was saying, which is that a chargesheet ought to be filed against Mr. Maran. This was, thus, a clear attempt on the part of the CBI Director to save Mr. Maran and M/s Maxis, by overruling his own investigation officers in an open and shut case of bribery. Even after the Attorney General gave a categorical opinion, the Director CBI delayed filing of the chargsheet, which was only filed after the an application seeking his recusal was filed in the Supreme Court and only after the writ petition filed by Mr. Maran was dismissed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court.
(VI) Recently, the entry register of 2013 and 2014 of the official residence of the CBI Director, i.e. 2, Janpath, New Delhi, has now been accessed by several media organisations. It shows, quite shockingly, that the CBI Director was having meetings with several accused persons in prominent cases like 2G scam, coal scam, and with hawala operators, several of which took place late at night, at his residence, without any of the investigation officers being present. The aforesaid entry register of CBI Director's residence runs into hundreds of pages and contains thousands of hand-written entries. The entries contain specific details, including the name of the visitor, date & time of visit and the vehicle number, which can easily be verified from the police personnel of ITBP who were on gate duty at the residence of the Director, CBI, and their names are Vinod Singh Negi, Inspector, Rajkumar, Head Constable, Subhash, Constable and Khyali Ram, Constable.
The entry register shows that top officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) have met the Director, CBI, quite frequently in the last 15 months at his official residence. Two names are mentioned incompletely in the diary like Tony, Toni, Toni+Sir, Raman, Setu, Setu Raman and Toni+Setu. These two officials appear to be Tony Jesudasan (PR Manager and director in several ADAG companies) and AN Sethuraman (group president of ADAG).
This is substantiated by the fact that the cars in which they arrived at the residence of the CBI Director are reportedly registered in the name of ADAG.
These visits have happened contemporaneously with the developments mentioned above where the Director was attempting to
destroy the CBI's prosecution case against accused Reliance and its 3 officers.
Some of the other prominent names which figure in the said register are as follows:
(i) Moin Qureshi, notorious hawala dealer;
(ii) Mahendra Nahata, whose name appeared in Radia Tape and was examined in 2G Scam;
(iii) Devendra Darda, accused in Coal Scam;
(iv) Vijay Darda, accused in Coal Scam;
(v) M P Rungta, accused in Coal Scam;
(vi) Subodh Kant Sahai, accused in Coal Scam
(vii) Ketan Desai, Former MCI Chairman who had earlier been arrested in MCI corruption case;
(viii) Anil Agarwal from Vedanta;
(ix) Sunil Bajaj from Essar
When these facts came to light, Mr. Sinha got the CBI to issue a statement that these revelations are a lie and no such entry register exists. Later, he issued a statement that this is tantamount to an invasion of his privacy and he would sue the NGO, which has raised this issue before the Supreme Court in a PIL, for perjury.
And then he issued a statement that some entries in the register are genuine while the others are forged. Finally he again changed his statement and stated that there is nothing wrong in meeting the accused. Then again, in an interview with HT, he has stated that he was meeting these people because you need a thief to catch a thief.
It is submitted that the aforementioned instances clearly require immediate attention from your office and therefore, I request you to kindly initiate the process of his removal from the post of the Director, CBI under Section 4 B (2) of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and also initiate appropriate disciplinary and criminal proceedings against him.
It is important to take these actions urgently so that the dignity of the post which he is occupying could be restored and also the important corruption cases, which are being handled by the CBI under his supervision, could be saved from getting derailed.
Sincerely yours;
(Prashant Bhushan)
CC: Mr. Rajnath Singh (Union Home Minister)
