File photo of CBI Director Ranjit Sinha
CBI chief Ranjit Sinha must be removed from the coal scam that his agency is investigating, lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan has said in the Supreme Court, which will hear his petition on Tuesday.
"If the court orders (it), I will recuse myself," Mr Sinha said.
Mr Bhushan's demand is based on a visitors' diary maintained by security guards at the CBI chief's home. The entries allegedly show that Mr Sinha met at his Delhi residence with representatives of Reliance Telecom, a company being investigated in the telecom scam, and Congress leaders including Vijay Darda whose firms and relatives have been linked to the coal scandal.
"I have met officials of Reliance but have I shown favour to anyone?" Mr Sinha told NDTV on Wednesday, denying inappropriate behaviour.
On Monday, the top court will review the controversial diary. On Tuesday, it will take up Mr Bhushan's request to sequester Mr Sinha from the CBI's inquest of how and why coal blocks were allocated by the government without a transparent bidding process, resulting in losses worth 1.86 lakh crores, according to the government's auditor.
Last week, the Supreme Court declared that all coal block allocations since 1993 - nearly 200 in all - are illegal. It has not yet decided whether to cancel the licenses en masse. Mr Bhushan says that Mr Sinha's role in the investigation deserves scrutiny because last year, he ceded that a status report on "Coal-Gate", meant to be confidential for the court, had been reviewed and amended by the government. Mr Bhushan wants a Special Investigation Team to determine whether Mr Sinha misused his office to help some of those accused of breaking the law.
It is on Mr Bhushan's request that the Supreme Court has been monitoring the CBI's scrutiny of the alleged crony capitalism that determined who got coal and telecom resources. The CBI has said that former Telecom Minister A Raja accepted bribes from companies including Reliance in exchange for out-of-turn mobile network licenses.