Coal block case probe: Ex-CBI chief Ranjit Sinha’s visitor diary genuine, he tried to influence probe, says SC panel

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Rohatgi, who was provided a copy of the interim report which is yet to be made public, also said the Sharma panel concluded that the visitors’ logbook at Sinha’s residence was genuine.

“It (report) says that meetings with some of the accused in these cases also took place. It says that inquiries might have been influenced after such meetings. The report does make some damning remarks against Ranjit Sinha,” the Attorney General told a bench led by Justice Madan B Lokur.

Rohatgi said the Sharma panel, however, expressed its inability to adduce final conclusions since it had records of only the registered cases (RCs) but not the preliminary enquiries (PEs).

At this, the bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri, asked the Attorney General whether the panel should be given access to PEs as well and if the report should be made public.

Rohatgi said: “I don’t think PEs should be given to this panel. After all, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has already looked into all cases of closure and in several of them, it ordered registration of cases. If this panel gets the PEs now, what purpose was served by sending everything to the CVC? It would become an unending process.” He also said that the court should first verify the genuineness of the logbook.

“By which process can we verify the genuineness of the logbook? Should we order a criminal case right away? Or should we make the report public so that parties can make their arguments and raise objections?” the bench asked the Attorney General, who said he had no qualms about the report being made public.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who represents NGO Common Cause, urged the bench to make the report public and order registration of a criminal case in the matter. But CBI counsel Amarendra Sharan and Sinha’s counsel Vikas Singh opposed the plea, pointing out that there was not a single case in which all officers asked for registration of a case but the former director preferred closure.

They also claimed that the CBI had a “robust” mechanism wherein decisions are taken on the basis of documents by officers at various levels before it reaches the director.

Appearing for Sinha, Singh also refuted the allegation saying entries in the register or the diary were dubious or fictitious since the former CBI director was not in the Capital on many of the dates mentioned.

Taking note of the submissions, the bench reserved its order for passing directions on whether the report should be made public. The court will also decide on providing the Sharma panel the records of PEs.The panel is investigating the alleged scuttling of the probe into the coal block allocation cases by Sinha whose meetings with the accused persons have been held as “completely inappropriate”.

On December 7 last year, the court ordered handing over of the original visitors’ diary of the official residence of the former CBI director to the Sharma-led panel. The bench then appointed a panel headed by Sharma who later sought the visitors’ diary for proceeding with the probe.