2G hearing: SC directs CBI officers to leave court room and do their duty

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday took strong exception to CBI officers present in the court room and directed them to leave and “do their duty” in office.

The court also did not take well to the presence of a large number of CBI officers in the courtroom, and enquired about the reason for their attendance.

When senior counsel Vikas Singh, representing Sinha, sought to justify this, saying they were assisting the court in giving clarifications on files, if any, Chief Justice Dattu said: “We have not called them. If we need any clarification, we will call them.”

The chief justice then directed all the officers to vacate and attend to their work.

The apex court also pulled up joint director Ashok Tiwari after he put forward his view on allegations against Sinha.

“You are not agents of CBI director. You can’t be his mouth piece,” SC said.

Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover told the Supreme Court that CBI director Ranjit Sinha had interfered in 2G case which is completely inconsistent with the agency’s stand.

“Our case in 2G could have been demolished, if Sinha’s stand was accepted”, Grover said.

Meanwhile, the CBI contradicted Sinha’s statement made in the court yesterday that one of his senior officers is a mole.

Sinha yesterday claimed in the SC that a senior IPS officer in CBI is the “mole” who supplied documents and file notings to advocate Prashant Bhushan on the basis of which “false and baseless” allegations were made.

The four-and-half hour proceedings witnessed high-voltage drama and heated exchange of words with counsel appearing for Sinha and Bhushan losing their temper often and the bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu had to intervene.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the Director, submitted that the allegations levelled are baseless and false and placed confidential files of 2G probe to substantiate his arguments that Ranjit Sinha had not tried to save any accused in the case.

He said the file notings and documents, on the basis of which NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation filed the petition seeking probe against the Director, was supplied by a DIG-rank officer Santosh Rastogi.