CBI chief skirts question on Shah discharge: ‘Will first see court order’

“I cannot comment on the quality of the investigation or any future action unless I first go through the court’s order. I believe it has reached us only a short while back. I do not want to make any forward looking statements,” Sinha said.

The CBI has come under fire for arguing against Shah’s discharge application for only 45 minutes as opposed to oral arguments over three days by Shah’s defence lawyers.

On Friday, CBI sources, however, claimed that an “exhaustive and strong” written submission had been filed before the Mumbai court in addition to the CBI’s oral arguments.

“The quality of our submissions against the discharge application cannot be equated to the length of oral arguments. An exhaustive and strong written submission has also been filed in the court,” said a senior CBI officer.

With the CBI being criticised for not appointing a special public prosecutor to fight the cases, the officer said, “It is not required to appoint a special public prosecutor in every case. We stuck with the prosecutor who has been fighting the case for the last two years and is well versed with it.”

The CBI said “it had been brought to its notice” that additional solicitor general Pinky Anand, a member of the All India National Executive of the BJP and ex-convenor of the party’s national legal and legislative cell, had appeared for the agency in the Sohrabuddin encounter case.

“She had appeared only for one or two court hearings during which nothing of consequence took place. The matter was assigned to her in normal course by the CLA (central law agency) as per a roster. By the time it was brought to our notice, the matter had been assigned to someone else as per the roster,” said the CBI officer.

Meanwhile, asked when the CBI would examine former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in connection with the 2005 allocation of a coal block in Orissa to Hindalco, CBI chief Sinha said, “We will comply with the court’s order.”