BackAircel-Maxis case: Supreme Court seeks status reports on probe
Supreme Court said it wanted to know against whom what investigation was pending or had been completed and what was the stage of the probe in the case
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the special public prosecutor appointed by it in the 2G spectrum scam case to file a status report on the probe carried out by ED officer Rajeshwar Singh in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.
It said that it wanted to know against whom what investigation was pending or had been completed and what was the stage of the probe in the case. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and M.M. Shantanagoudar said that this matter had not come before the court for a while and, therefore, it wanted to know the status of the investigation.
“You file a status report on the investigation done so far, against whom it is pending or complete. We want everything. File it by the next date of hearing on January 4," it told special public prosecutor Anand Grover and the counsel for the CBI and ED.
The bench made it clear that “the case needs to proceed further and it does not matter whether Rajeshwar Singh is there or not" and that there should not be any delay. The court also allowed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to file a note after he sought permission to file it with regard to Singh and the probe in the case.
On 1 November, the apex court had restrained the government from taking any immediate action against Rajeshwar Singh, probing the multi-crore rupees Aircel-Maxis case and the 2G spectrum scam, following some anonymous complaints against him. The court’s direction had came after Singh alleged there was a “conspiracy" behind filing of “frivolous anonymous complaints" against him with the revenue secretary saying these were being entertained by the ED.
He had said that such complaints were filed after the recent attachment of assets worth Rs1.16 crore allegedly of the accused in the Aircel-Maxis deal case. Though the name of the accused in Aircel-Maxis deal case was not taken by Singh’s counsel, on 23 September, the ED had reportedly attached assets worth Rs1.16 crore of Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection with its money laundering probe in connection with the deal.
The court had issued notices to the CBI, the ED and the department of telecom and sought their response in three weeks. Singh had told the court that it should direct a CBI probe into the alleged conspiracy of filing of complaints or for relieving him from the investigation of the 2G scam case.
He said earlier too, several attempts were made to interfere with the 2G scam investigation but the court had always protected him. Singh had said that he was an Uttar Pradesh cadre police official on deputation to the ED and his promotion in the service was due, which could be hampered due to such complaints.
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