New Delhi, May 21: The CBI today moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to remove one of its officers from the specially constituted team probing the court-monitored Rs 1.82 lakh crore coal block allocation scandal because of his own arrest in a bribery case.
The CBI plea comes in the backdrop of the apex court’s direction on May 8 that the probe team should not be changed without prior permission of the court.
“The director, CBI shall ensure that 33 officers, list of which has been supplied to this court in the compilation entitled ‘CVs of officers associated with inquiry and investigation-Coal Block Allocations’ and Mr Ravi Kant, IPS on his rejoining CBI on deputation basis are not changed without leave of the court and the same investigating team continues until further orders,” the apex court order read.
In the affidavit filed today, the central investigating agency claimed that it caught Vivek Dutt, an officer of the rank of superintendent of police, and CBI inspector Rajesh Chander Karnatak collecting a bribe of Rs 14 lakh on May 17. Two other persons, Rajesh Pachisia and Dinesh Chand Gupta, were also arrested. The CBI claimed that Rs 7 lakh each was meant for Dutta and Karnatak. The money was brought by Pachisia and Gupta. It was meant to settle a dispute between Gupta and Vikas Goyal, a resident of east Kailash in the capital.
According to the CBI, Goyal had filed an FIR at Amar Colony police station against Gupta, accusing him of cheating him of Rs 1.94 crore. The two CBI officers — Dutt and Karnataka — intervened on behalf of Gupta and allegedly pressured the station house officer of the police station to settle the dispute between the two without initiating any official action. They had allegedly threatened that the CBI would be forced to intervene and the SHO may face difficulties if he acted otherwise.
The CBI said Gupta and Pachisia were delivering the money to the two officers when all four were arrested.
“That in the aforesaid circumstances, it is humbly submitted that CBI may kindly be permitted to remove the name of Mr Vivek Dutt from the list of 33 officers associated with enquiry and investigation in matters related to coal block allocation,” the CBI in its application annexed with the affidavit stated.
On May 8, the apex court while vowing to liberate the CBI from political influence, asked the government to clarify by July 3 whether it intends to come out with a legislation to insulate the agency from extraneous influence or should the judiciary step in to stem the rot.
The apex court order was passed while dealing with the PILs filed by an advocate, Manohar Lal Sharma, and NGO Common Cause represented by Prashant Bhushan. They had prayed for a thorough court-monitored investigation through a special investigation team to unearth the full magnitude of the coal allocation scandal.
The petitioners said the coal allocation scandal not only involved the coal ministry but also the PMO (in charge of the ministry for intermittent periods from 2004 to 2009), and the ministries of steel and power and various governments of states where the coal blocks are located. The CBI is probing allocations made since 1993.
