NEW DELHI: Weeks after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked its former boss AP Singh in a corruption case, the agency has now registered an FIR against another former agency chief Ranjit Sinha in a graft case following a directive from the Supreme Court.
In its FIR registered on Monday, the CBI has booked Sinha for abuse of official position under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for allegedly meeting the accused persons in the coal block allocation cases at his residence without the presence of the investigating officer/team during his stint as the CBI chief between 2014 to 2016.
The CBI had registered three Preliminary Enquiries (PEs) against unknown public servants for probing allegations relating to illegal allocation of coal blocks for the period from 1993 to 2005 and 2006 to 2009. Fifty-four regular cases (FIRs) against public servants and private persons were also registered by the CBI to investigate the allegations of corruption in coal block allocation.
During the course of investigations of the coal block allocation cases, certain allegations were levelled about the inappropriate conduct of Sinha. The SC had held that it was completely inappropriate on part of Sinha to meet accused persons in the coal block allocation cases and had directed the CBI to probe if Sinha’s meetings with the accused persons had any impact on the chargesheets and the closure reports in the coal block cases.
The SC-appointed committee led by former CBI Special Director ML Sharma submitted its report to the apex court on the allegations against Sinha. Following this, the SC through an order dated January 23 this year constituted a SIT headed by the CBI Director to look into the ML Sharma’s report and conduct an investigation into the abuse of authority prima facie committed by Sinha with a view to scuttle enquiries, investigations and prosecutions that were being carried out by the CBI into the coal block allocation cases.
“In view of the orders of the Honourable Supreme Court dated 23 January 2017 vide which CBI was instructed to conduct an investigation (as a Special Investigating Team) into the abuse of authority prima facie conducted by Shri Ranjit Sinha with a view to scuttle enquiries, investigations and prosecutions being carried out by the CBI in coal block allocation cases, a Regular Case under sections....of the Prevention of Corruption case, 1988 is registered....for investigation,” said Joint Director and Head of Zone (Anti-Corruption Headquarter) AK Sharma in his order issued on Monday.