SIT Head M L Sharma Demands 7 Officers, 8 Aides, 7 Rooms, Armed Guards, Fat Pay & Infrastructure
The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court it needed to rethink the mode to probe the alleged clandestine meetings of former CBI director Ranjit Sinha with 2G scam and Coalgate accused as the court-proposed SIT, headed by former CBI special director M L Sharma, was proving to be a very costly affair. Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi informed a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri that Sharma had sent a long list of infrastructure and manpower requirements to investigate whether Sinha's meetings with the accused resulted in diluting certain cases relating to the scams.
On July 6, the SC had suggested Sharma's name to head the special investigation team (SIT) to probe the matter. On May 14, the bench decided to probe the CBI exdirector after advocate Prashant Bhushan produced the purported visitors' diary of his official residence to allege that Sinha had surreptitiously met the accused.
Sharma informed the AG that he would require seven officers, four subordinate staff, four stenographers, six to seven rooms of office space in central Delhi with ade quate infrastructure, includ ing landline and mobile phones, armed guards for the premises, travel budget, and other office requirements.
Apart from that, what made the government rethink the feasibility, was the demand for six figure salaries for some of the officers.
Rohatgi also protest Rohatgi also protested in court about the SIT's demand for police powers -search, seizure and arrest. The AG said if police pow ers are essential to the probe, the government would like to entrust the investigation to a regular police agency.
He said the government will consult the Central Vigi lance Commission and get back to the court. The bench asked him to respond on Sep tember 7.
Bhushan opposed the gov ernment's move to go back to CVC. He said Sharma's de mands did not appear out landish. “That is why I was suggesting that the probe be supervised by a retired SC judge like Justice Santosh Hegde and it could include former police officers like Prakash Singh,“ he said. The SC had on May 14 said there could be no justification for Sinha's secret meetings with those accused in the coal scam. A matter of concern and probe was required to find out whether such meetings influenced the CBI's investigations into the scam, it said while turning down the agency's contention that any probe against Sinha would severely damage its image and credibility.
Sinha as CBI director had presented the coal scam investigation status report for vetting to UPA government's law minister Ashwani Kumar prior to its filing before the Supreme Court, which had berated the agency as government's “caged parrot“. But disclosure of the visitors' diary had severely dented Sinha's reputation.
The SC was firm that a probe was required into the allegations and had said, “The fact that Sinha met some of the accused persons without the investigating officer or the investigating team being present disturbs us with regard to the fairness of the investigations.“
The court recounted that a fortnight before Sinha's retirement in December last year, it had restrained him from handling 2G scam cases on the basis of similar charges made by Bhushan based on visitors' diary entries.
