Apex court asks CBI for files, notings on Ranjit Sinha

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to place before it the “files and notings” following allegations that the probe agency's director Ranjit Sinha wanted to stop trial against Reliance Telcom Ltd (RTL) and three top Reliance ADAG executives who are accused in the 2G spectrum scam case.

The issue was raised by the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL)—one of the PIL petitioners on whose plea the apex court had scrapped 122 licences for 2G spectrum on February 2, 2012.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, submitted that reports have appeared in the media that the CBI director, as well as DIG-rank CBI officer Santosh Rastogi, had sent a draft request to Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit to stop the ongoing trial against Reliance and reopen the case for further probe.

He said the director wanted reopening of the whole investigation under the impression that “the charge sheet is based on a wrong premise”.

Taking note of the submissions, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice H L Dattu said, “It is a serious matter,” and asked CBI counsel K K Venugopal “to get the record of what Bhushan is talking about”. It then posted the matter for hearing on September 2.

Meanwhile, the NGO also raised the issue of the reported link between Tata Group and Unitech for securing the 2G spectrum.

The bench said it would consider this issue too on September 2, as the Central Bureau of Investigationv has mentioned it in its status report.