THREE coal scam cases decided in the tenure of former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha are thought to be key to the Supreme Court’s order last week calling for a probe into what it called Sinha’s “abuse of authority.” Sources have confirmed to The Indian Express that the probe panel appointed by the Supreme Court, headed by former CBI Special Director M L Sharma, has found a correlation between visits to Sinha’s residence by some of the coal-scam accused — recorded in visitors’ logbooks — to the closure or dilution of their cases. Read | ADAG, Essar executives to Congress leaders, all came visiting WATCH VIDEO | BJP Leaders Including Shazia Ilmi & Others Named As Independent Directors In Top PSUs The three coal cases listed for the Supreme Court — a copy of Sharma’s 200-page report has been given to Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi — are against Jas Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd (JICPL); JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd and AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd. The panel has concluded that the cases against the first two companies were closed when Sinha was Director and the charges against the third were diluted. READ: SC rejects CBI chief Ranjit Sinha’s plea to gag media from reporting on his visitors’ logbook In all, the CBI had given the panel the case files of 13 RCs (Regular Cases) where a decision was taken during Sinha’s tenure. While closure reports were filed in eight of these cases, prosecutions were launched by the agency in five. It is another matter that the courts had not accepted the CBI’s closure reports and took cognisance of the charges in 12 of these 13 cases. The issue of framing of charges had not been decided in the remaining case by the time the inquiry panel submitted its report in April 2016. Nine months later, details are now trickling in about the manner in which entries in Sinha’s visitors’ logbooks have been linked to the outcome in these cases in the court-monitored probe. Read | Ex-Cabinet minister to coal scam accused, CM to 2G ‘beneficiary’: CBI chief’s guests WATCH VIDEO | Shiv Sena Breaks 25-Year Alliance With BJP In Maharashtra, To Go Solo In BMC Elections The common thread in these three cases is that former Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda and his son Devendra Darda have been named as accused in them. Former Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia has also been named as an accused in the third case, that of AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd. Sharma’s panel is understood to have listed how Bagrodia visited Sinha’s residence 46 times during the 2013-2014 period for when the register was maintained. Also, while Vijay Darda visited the CBI boss on three occasions, his son visited him 12 times in the same period. The inquiry panel also obtained telephone records for the relevant period to conclude that besides personal visits, several persons named in the logbooks also had lengthy and frequent telephone conversations with Sinha. Sources said the probe panel used the power to issue summons — granted to it by the apex court — to record statements. To assess the authenticity of the 310-page entry logbooks, the panel questioned six Delhi Police constables who were posted at Sinha’s Janpath residence. The policemen said that they maintained the logbooks. A large number of persons whose names appeared frequently were summoned by the panel and this included Vijay Darda and Devendra Darda. Sources said that a majority of the visitors to Sinha’s house told the inquiry panel that they had made only “social visits” to his residence and that no official business was discussed. Snapshots have also been prepared for the Supreme Court of particular “working days” when the CBI Director met as many as 23 visitors at his residence. The Supreme Court has now, following a hearing on January 23, 2017 ruled that a “prima facie case has definitely been made out for investigation into the abuse of authority” by the former CBI Chief. Directions have also been issued to the present Chief Alok Verma to set up a Special Investigating Team (SIT) within the agency to handle the criminal probe. The CBI Chief has also been asked to take the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) into confidence over the probe.
