Coal scam case: SC orders probe against former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the CBI to probe the agency’s former director Ranjit Sinha over charges of tampering with investigations into the coal scam, as prima facie a case was made out against him for abuse of authority. The court also expressed its impatience with the CBI for not completing its investigations into the case over alleged irregularities in coal block allocations.

But a bench headed by justice Madan B Lokur rejected a plea for a court-appointed special investigation team to probe allegations that Sinha hobnobbed with the accused, compromising investigations into the case. The court had earlier directed a panel headed by another former CBI director, ML Sharma, to probe the allegations against Sinha and it had found him prima facie guilty of the charges.

“We have considered the issue whether an outside body of investigators should be appointed as the SIT … since there has been a change of guard in the CBI (with Sinha retiring), we would continue to repose our faith in the impartiality of the CBI to look into the report prepared by ML Sharma and other relevant documents,” the court said.


On the time the CBI has taken to probe the case, the court said: “This cannot go on. When will it end? You can’t keep asking for time forever.”

CBI senior advocate Amarendra Sharan said field investigations into all FIRs in the case had been completed. Charge sheets had been filed in most cases, he said, adding: “A robust system of investigation is in place.”

The last case was filed only in last December, he said, while assuring the court that he would give a bird’s-eye view of the progress made in investigations in the next court hearing.

The top court said it would deal on January 30 with issues over conflict of interest of CBI officers dealing with the case. The issue of whether the coal case accused can approach the high court for discharge or quashing of the charges against them will be dealt with on February 20.

The Delhi High Court had disallowed the accused in the case from seeking any relief from it, prompting several people including former coal secretary HC Gupta and industrialist Naveen Jindal to challenge it. The issue of the failure of some companies to pay a penalty of Rs 295 per tonne for illegally extracted coal, as imposed by the court earlier, will also be taken up on February 20.