NEW DELHI, Oct 19:
CBI Director Ranjit Sinha has said that he would file a perjury case against lawyer Prashant Bhushan in the wake of an income tax probe finding there was no conversation between him and controversial meat-exporter Moin Qureshi as alleged.
He said he would be filing the case week next week as all the allegations levelled by Bhushan against him had “fallen flat” the Income Tax probe.
“It’s not a question of Ranjit Sinha but the honour and dignity of the post of the CBI Director,” he said.
“I decided to approach the Supreme Court. I am not important, my organisation is. I am grateful to the apex court for restoring the dignity of the premier probe agency,” Sinha said here.
He also rubbished allegations made by Bhushan that Qureshi was possibly a conduit between the CBI director and the coal-scam accused.
Bhushan had alleged that Sinha had 90 meetings with Qureshi over 15 months and claimed that he was a conduit for getting the agency to shut probes into various cases linked to the coal scam.
The Supreme Court was apprised on Friday by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi about an appraisal report prepared by the Director General of Income Tax (Investigations) on Qureshi.
“There is no conversation (between Qureshi and Sinha). There may be some innuendo referring to present CBI Director but there is no direct conversation”, Rohatgi had said in the Court.
Sinha had also raised objections after a special court hearing coal cases remarked that the investigators should undergo proper training and refresher courses at CBI Academy so as to hone their investigation skills.
The Supreme Court has asked the special court dealing with the coal-block allocation cases not to make any personal remarks against the officers probing the scam and to stick to the point of law.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice M B Lokur had disapproved of the remarks made by the special court, saying “it (trial court) will stick with the legal issues and not make any personal remarks.”
The court had also barred any officer probing the coal cases from opting out of the investigation without the permission of the Supreme Court.
Sinha claimed that there were concerted efforts by “vested interests” to sully CBI’s image by making false allegations. (PTI)
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