Supreme Court Orders CBI Director Ranjit Sinha to Stay out of 2G Scam Probe

The Supreme Court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Ranjit Sinha not to interfere with the 2G-scam investigation, in connection with the allegations that he met the accused at his official residence between the trials.

The apex court was hearing the case filed by an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), which alleged that Sinha might have helped some of the accused in 2G spectrum scam. After hearing the arguments, the Bench said the allegations against Sinha are "credible."

"For us, it appears that all is not well and prima facie it seems that allegations made in the application by NGO have some credibility," PTI quoted the court as saying.

Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover told the court on Thursday that Sinha had interfered in the investigation of 2G case. "Our case in 2G could have been demolished, if Sinha's stand was accepted," he told the apex court.

The Bench said that it will not give any detailed orders as they have to protect the reputation of the investigating agency.

"We are not giving detailed, elaborate orders to protect the fair name of the institution and reputation of the CBI as it will damage the institution," IBNLive quoted the court as saying.

In his defence, Sinha had on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that DIG-rank CBI officer Santosh Rastogi had passed on "certain documents" to CPIL, which used those materials to file a false case against him.

Reacting to the order, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy told CNN-IBN, "CBI director should now step down."

Sinha, who will be retiring on 2 December, was accused of meeting high-profile representatives of companies named in the 2G spectrum case at his official residence. In September this year, Bhushan, representing CPIL, claimed that he met them over 50 times in the last 15 months.

Bhushan's allegations were based on the visitor's details from the register acquired from Sinha's residence by an anonymous source.

Sinha had earlier accepted meeting some of them, but not 50 times as claimed and had said he never did favours to any of them.