dna cracks mystery of Mithilesh Kumar, who visited CBI director Ranjit Sinha 275 times

dna has found out who Mithilesh Kumar is! On September 4, we published a story about the mysterious Mr Kumar, who clocked the maximum visit (275) to CBI director Ranjit Sinha’s official residence – 2, Janpath.

dna reporters tried to track down the car he travelled in that time, but the trail took them to some other people. Mithilesh’s identity remained unknown.

Sinha offered to answer this question. He told the media Mithilesh is a retired civil engineer. But his answer was not complete. He did not reveal the most vital information about Mithilesh.

dna findings are Mithilesh is a coal mining expert. He retired from a ‘mini ratna’ company -- Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd (CMPDIL) - only last year.

CMPDIL, a premier institution, located in Ranchi, provides total consultancy in coal and mineral exploration mining, engineering and allied fields.

CMPDIL’s personnel and administration department head Bimlendu Kumar told dna over phone (from Ranchi): “Mithilesh Kumar Singh retired as general manager last year. He either retired in the beginning of 2013 or by the end of 2013.’’

But Mithilesh was already a frequent visitor to the CBI director’s residence from May 1, 2013, onwards. According to the visitors’ diary at 2, Janpath, Mithilesh had 24X7 access to Sinha’s house. He had visited Sinha at least 275 times in the past 15 months.

Mithilesh’s visits increased after the Supreme Court entrusted Sinha with the most important job – unravelling the criminal intent behind many coal scam cases. He paid 23 visits between August 1 and August 17. He was also accompanied by unknown people on several occasions.

Has CBI hired Mithilesh Kumar Singh for his expertise in coal scam cases? CBI sources say they don’t know about it. No one in CBI has a clue.

When asked pinpointedly on Saturday as to whether Mithilesh is a coal engineer, Sinha said: “Mithilesh is a friend for 40 years. We have studied together in Bihar. He was a chief engineer in Coal India. How can you say that I have consulted him or sought his help in any of the coal cases?”

But Sinha has formally proposed the closure of four coal scam cases in the past 15 months. He is reportedly in the process of closing 22 more.

Noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan had argued in the Supreme Court that Sinha is overruling his subordinates to hurriedly close most of the coal cases without any substantive ground. Whose advise is prompting Sinha to close investigation?

The four cases in which the closure reports have been filed are JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd and JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd (both belong to Congress MP Vijay Darda) and Vikas Metals and Hindalco (of Kumar Mangalam Birla).

The visitors’ diary register 13 visits of Vijay Darda’s brother Devendra Darda – from 28 January to 29 May, 2014. Vijay Darda had visited Sinha’s residence only once.
Mithilesh was, of course, at Sinha’s house almost every day. On April 14, when coal cases were closed against Vijay Darda, Mithilesh visited Sinha’s house twice.
Former cabinet minister Subodh Kant Sahay, too, had visited Sinha’s residence on February 13, spending 25 minutes with the CBI director.