Refusing to make any comments, the Supreme Court on Monday left it to the Central Bureau of Investigation to proceed as per law on the issue of registering an FIR into the alleged seizure of unaccounted cash worth Rs. 25 crore, a diary and other incriminating documents from Aditya Birla Group’s Corporate Office here in 2013.
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“We expect the CBI to act on all the informations that have been disclosed and to take action in accordance with the law and the provisions of Criminal Procedure Code and the law laid down by this court”, the bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Jopseh and A K Sikri, said.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the former CBI Director, said the diary, all along, has been denied and it should not be given to the inquiry committee.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, representing non-profit Common Cause, a petitioner in coal block allocation cases told the court that it did not have to monitor the probe, but could ask the CBI to conduct further investigations.
Bhushan had sought the court’s intervention as the CBI had originally not probed the diary.
In this regard, the honourable court has observed that “we are not making any comment as to whether any offence is made out or not”. Referring to the entries, he said that this means that this was a regular practice to give such amounts to public servants for ingratiating and bribery. One related to “political donations” by the trusts to all the political parties, prompting observation by Justice Lokur “except one party” in a possible reference to the Aam Aadmi Party, which discloses details of all donors.
“Some entries are vague”, he said, telling the court about that the agency will register a preliminary enquiry.
He argued that since the seized money was unaccounted wealth, the CBI should also probe the matter relating to the destination and persons behind the money as it involved criminality irrespective of their involvement in the coal scam. The CBI reportedly came across more than a dozen entries under this head, showing purported payments made to various people.
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The bench was hearing the application filed by the NGO through Bhushan, which also sought a probe into the group’s alleged hawala transactions which cropped up during the probe of the coal scam and permission granted for alleged diversion of coal from the block allotted to Reliance ADAG’s Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project in Madhya Pradesh.
