2 Janpath Diary: Supreme Court vindicates dna's expose, removes CBI Director Ranjit Sinha from 2G case

In a huge vindication of dna's expose on the 2 Janpath diary, the Supreme Court on Thursday removed CBI Director Ranjit Sinha from the investigation into the 2G case.

The apex court treated the content of the diary, which detailed as many as 50 meetings between Sinha with the representatives of 2G accused, as “credible” and directed the premier agency head to recuse himself from the case.

The court, which had earlier sought identity of the whistleblower who leaked the diary details, recalled its order.

The unprecedented development took place just 12 days before Sinha is to demit his office.

Dna, which has access to the diary, first broke the story on September 2 that top officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) met CBI director Ranjit Sinha at least 50 times in 15 months at his official residence at 2 Janpath here.

Without giving an elaborate order, a three judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India H L Dattu considered the diary content as “credible” and shunted Sinha from the case.

“To protect the public faith in the institution and reputation of Director, we are not passing any detailed order. We find the informations furnished by the petitioner prima facie appears to be credible....In view of the above we recall our September 15 order. We direct Ranjit Sinha not to interfere and recuse himself from the 2G case,” the bench said and directed the investigation should now be handed over to the senior most officer of the agency.

After hearing the arguments for three consecutive days on the issue of whether the name of the whistle blower should be disclosed or not, the bench accepted Special Public Prosecutor in the 2G case Anand Grover’s submission that the information is credible and there is no need for the disclosure of the whistleblower’s identity.

Grover referred to the file notings, which he had submitted in a sealed cover, in the case and said that “the director had tried to interfere into the 2G probe.”

The file notings pertained to the 2G probe against Reliance Telecom, Aircel-Maxis, Tata Tele service and also the transfer of DIG Santosh Rastogi after he opposed Sinha’s move in the probe against Reliance Telecom.

The senior lawyer told the court that Sinha had attempted to bypass the then Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit,now a Supreme Court judge, who was appointed by the court. 
 
Petitioner NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) counsel Prashant Bhushan, who refused to disclose the identity of whistle blower citing that it would endanger the person who provided the information, said that Sinha should resign form the post immediately or the government should suspend him or departmental proceedings should be initiated against Sinha.

Earlier, dna had reported that two ADAG officials Tony Jesudasan and AN Sethuraman (whose names are mentioned incompletely in the diary like Tony, Toni, ....., Setu Raman and Toni+Setu) had visited Sinha’s house individually and also some time together almost every week between May 2013 and August 2014 and the cars they used are registered in the name of ADAG. The frequency of their visits increased this year when Sinha moved a proposal to re-investigate the case against Reliance Telecom and Swan Telecom on grounds that some new facts have come to light.  

As per details recorded in the register, Setu had visited in a car – DL4C-NE-7809 -- registered in the name of Reliance Infrastructure Limited, 27-BK Road, Delhi. Similarly, another car in which Tony or Toni frequently came to visit Sinha –DL-2CQ-5868 -- is also registered with Reliance ADA Group, 27-BK Road, New Delhi. The duo also came in some other cars --DL4C-AN-4131 and DL-1CP-6732 -- both registered with Reliance ADA Group, BK Road, New Delhi.