New Delhi: The Supreme Court sought to know Tuesday from the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) the status of investigation and trial in the coal block allocation scam cases that are being probed by the two agencies.
The apex court said it would take a practical view on repatriation of officers, involved in the investigation of coal scam cases, to their parent departments in a manner that the investigation does not get stalled.
A bench of justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said it needed to go through the case files as it was a new bench dealing with the matter and listed it for hearing, October 27.
The bench said it would also like to have the assistance of senior advocate RS Cheema, who has been appointed as special public prosecutor (SPP) by the top court for the coal scam cases, in the matter.
The bench also allowed an ED officer, who was engaged in the investigation of the cases, to go abroad for studies.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, said there are certain officers on deputation who have been posted in the agency for a very long time and now need to go back to their parent state cadre. He said there are some officers who have completed the investigation and chargesheets have also been filed in such cases.
“The top court had earlier said that no officers involved in the investigation of the coal scam cases shall be changed without prior permission,” Tushar Mehta pointed out.
To this, the bench said it ‘may not pass any omnibus order’ in the matter but may allow repatriation of certain officers, who have completed their work or have remained posted in the department for a very long time, to their parent departments.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO ‘Common Cause’ said the ED wants to remove a lot of officers from the coal scam cases. He also sought direction to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for filing a fresh status report of the probe into charges of ‘abuse of official position’ by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief Ranjit Sinha by allegedly trying to scuttle the probe in the coal scam cases.
The bench, however, did not pass any order on the submission made by Bhushan.
PTI