NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 18: Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal is facing flak from the Government as well as within Satarkata Bhavan over his decision to refer to the CBI ``allegations'' of income-tax violations by senior political leaders, including some Union ministers, named in the Jain hawala case. According to sources, Vittal sent the reference to CBI Director R K Raghavan last week, based on ``source information'', and consulted his colleague, V S Mathur, after the deed.CVC sources say Vittal sent the relevant file to Mathur only today, calling ``for discussions'' in the matter. They point out that there is no scope for discussion among the CVCs - mandatory under the provisions of the CVC Act before a decision is taken - after the decision.Earlier, Mathur had intervened and forced Vittal to modify his controversial order on putting the names of officials facing chargesheets on the CVC's website.When contacted by The Indian Express, Mathur, who recently suffered a bereavement, refused to comment on his differences with Vittal.The ``source information'' cited by Vittal in his reference to the CBI might well be a letter from Vineet Narain, a petitioner in the Jain hawala case, which was sent nearly 18 months ago. But Vittal told TV channels on Wednesday that the information had come from the I-T authorities. I-T sources have denied this.In his letter to Vittal sent in September 1998, Narain had sent a ``list of 22 coded names mentioned in the Jain diaries'' and asked Vittal to get the CBI and Enforcement Directorate to take a ``fresh look'' at the case. Narain subsequently had a meeting with Vittal in his office.Under the provisions of the CVC Act, as envisaged by the Supreme Court, all the vigilance commissioners are of equal rank and all decisions have to be taken in consultation. Around two months ago, Mathur had written to Vittal citing the Act and pointing out that ``you are a central vigilance commissioner not chief vigilance commissioner'' as Vittal was not consulting him on administrative matters.Now Mathur is likely to raise the issue of lack of consultation with Vittal and will also point out that after the accused have been acquitted in court and the case dismissed, it is unlikely to be looked at afresh on the basis of ``unverified source information''.References from Vittal, in fact, are learnt to have begun piling up at the CBI headquarters, and at least till now, no reply has been forthcoming on the two hawala missives sent by him.Following last month's reference to the CBI to ``examine the possibilities'' of re-opening the Jain hawala case after the arrest of Amir Bhai, Vittal last week forwarded a list of 15 names of politicians with figures of alleged concealed income, saying that the information was based on ``source'' information.Sources in the CBI say they have been receiving at least two or three such references from Vittal every day and that they were consulting their legal cell before replying to Vittal on the hawala case references.
