SC: How can CVC oversee 2G probe?

NEW DELHI: Eight days after it pulled up the government for appointing a ‘tainted’ P J Thomas to head the country’s top body for chec­king administrative corruption, the Sup­reme Court
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NEW DELHI: Eight days after it pulled up the government for appointing a ‘tainted’ P J Thomas to head the country’s top body for chec­king administrative corruption, the Sup­reme Court has expressed doubts about the prospect of a fair CBI probe into the 2008 spectrum allotments when the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, as Telecom Secretary previously, had sought to justify the dubious issuance of 2G licences.

Thomas, 60, was sworn in CVC on September 7 after serving as Telecom Secretary from October 1 last year. This trigge­red a controversy also because he is an accused in a corruption case pertaining to import of palmolein by the government in his native Kerala in 1992 when he was Food Secretary.

On Tuesday, a two-judge bench of the apex court noted that the CBI functioned under the supervision of the CVC. It would thus be difficult for Thomas to obj­ectively monitor the probe into the telecom scandal, pointed out Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly.

K K Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, told the judges that in addition to the CVC, there are two Vigilance Commissioners. And that one of them — Karnataka DGP R Shreekumar — could supervise CBI probe.

Senior counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, agreed on this, but wondered who would be the second person to oversee the investigation. Venugopal again told the court that there were two Vigilance Commissioners.  Outside the court, rumours spread about Thomas having offered to now res­ign, but the government refused to comment. “How do I know what he has offe­red and not offered,” asked Home Minis­ter P Chidambaram. “I made no suggestions and I received no offer.”  The BJP said Thomas should not be provided with an “escape route” by allowing him to resign. “He should be sacked,” said the party’s Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha S S Ahluwalia. His lower-house counterpart Sushma Swaraj wondered how the country could have such a CVC. “I have said this earlier too. My stand has been vindicated,” she told reporters in the capital.

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