Singh’s allegation is that a corporate house is working behind all these controversies and it is intended to benefit the accused in the 2G scam.
When Aam Aadmi Party leader and advocate Prashant Bhushan alleged that CBI director Ranjit Sinha was protecting the people involved in the 2G spectrum scam thus manipulating the investigation, he received everybody’s attention.
Bhushan furnished important CBI documents and, more importantly, the visitor’s diary kept at the cop’s residence.
Most of the visitors registered in the list were one way or the other related to the 2G case.
Well, the case was on in Supreme Court and the apex court has now directed Bhushan to reveal the name of the whistleblower from whom he got CBI documents and guest list at the top cop’s residence.
A bench headed by Justice H L Dattu asked Bhushan to do so on the next date of hearing and said that it will go into the merits of allegations after knowing the source of information, as it may have ramification on the reputation of the director and also affect the ongoing trial in the 2G scam.
The bench said that the affidavit filed by Bhushan is not in consonance with the Supreme Court rules and asked him to reveal the source from whom he got all the documents.
Sinha has questioned the very existence of the diary before the apex court and said that 90 per cent of the entries were fudged though some entries may be genuine.
Advocate Vikash Singh, appearing for Sinha, submitted that somebody else is controlling the proceedings in the case.
Singh’s allegation is that a corporate house is working behind all these controversies and it is intended to benefit the accused in the 2G scam. To supplement his allegation, he argued and raised questions on how a media group published a story in advance that Bhushan will be depositing the original guest list before the apex court.
Interestingly, senior advocate KK Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, did not put forth the agency’s stand when the court asked for it saying that it was a matter between Bhushan and the director.
The apex court has posted the matter for further hearing on September 22.
For those who do not know the case so well, the names in the diary, as per Sinha, they have been his friends for years. Among them are Tony Jesudasan, AN Sethuraman, Mahendra Nahata, Moin Qureshi, Vijay Darda and his son Devendra Darda, MP Rungta, Subodh Kant Sahay, Ram Vilas Paswan, Dr Ketan Desai and Ashok Agarwal — all of them or their organisations currently dealing with the CBI in criminal cases.
Sinha has argued that its not even a case of impropriety because he has not manipulated the investigations.
But the names in the diary, whether manipulated or not, enhance the suspicion.
-(with input from agencies)
