The Supreme Court on Monday permitted former CBI special director M.L.
The Supreme Court on Monday permitted former CBI special director M.L. Sharma, who has been appointed to investigate if the meetings which former CBI director Ranjit Sinha had with coal block allocation accused and other had in any way impacted the investigations, to access the visitors’ diary maintained by Mr Sinha.
The coal bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri directed the top court registry to forward the diary and other documents kept in a sealed cover to Mr Sharma for the purposes of probe. The bench made it clear that Mr Sharma should not reveal the contents of the diary other than to the members of the probe panel and it should be kept strictly confidential. The bench granted 12 weeks for completion of the probe.
The diary was produced in the court by the CBI in a sealed cover in the 2G case. During the course of hearing of the coal case it was alleged by counsel Prashant Bhushan that Mr Sinha had interfered with the investigation of the coal cases and this was evident from the meetings of the accused with Mr Sinha, as revealed in the diary. As the 2G case was heard by a bench headed by former CJI H.L. Dattu, the coal bench sought a clarification and accordingly the 2G bench asked the coal bench to take a call on whether the diary should be sent to Mr Sharma. During the resumed hearing on Monday, after hearing senior counsel Vikas Singh, appearing for Mr Sinha, the bench permitted Mr Sharma to have access to the diary.
