CBI’s Nageswara Rao tenders apology to Supreme Court

Held guilty of "contempt" last week by the top court for unilaterally transferring the Joint Director AK Sharma without seeking prior approval from the court, then CBI interim Director M Nageswara Rao on Monday filed an affidavit rendering an unconditional and unqualified apology for the decision. In the affidavit, Rao stated that he could not even dream of violating the order of the Supreme Court.

"I have not willfully violated the orders of this Honourable Court, as I can not even dream of violating or circumventing the order of this Honourable Court, and admit that in view of the orders dated 31/10/2018 and 28/11/2018 passed by the Honourable Court earlier, I ought not have agreed with the legal advice for relieving AK Sharma even on his promotion without prior approval of the court," stated the affidavit.Rao in his affidavit further stated that he unhesitatingly accepts his mistake and tender his unconditional and unequivocal apology to the court. "The action came to be made not with any deliberate or disobedient intent and it is humbly submitted that it was never my intent to undermine the majesty of the court or to flout or circumvent any direction of the court," stated the affidavit.

The apex court had come down heavily on the CBI for transferring its former Joint Director AK Sharma, who was probing Bihar's shelter home cases, out of the agency in violation of the court's order and directed its then interim chief M Nageswara Rao to personally appear before it on February 12.A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took serious note of violation of two earlier orders of the apex court and issued contempt notice to Rao for transferring Sharma to the CRPF on January 17 without taking prior permission from the court.

The bench, which also comprised Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, directed CBI Director Rishi Kumar Shukla to give the names of officers who were part of the process in transferring Sharma out of the probe agency.The top court referred to its earlier orders in which it had asked CBI not to remove Sharma from the team probing Bihar shelter home cases.