Coalgate and the befuddling logic of CBI chief Ranjit Sinha

Kumar Mangalam Birla and PC Parakh need not despair the CBI. After all, the agency and its boss Ranjit Sinha have made a habit of accusing people only to give them clean chits later. The country should, however, despair Mr. Ranjit Sinha, IPS. The country’s top investigator seems to suffers all too frequently from lapses in elementary logic.

Consider Sinha’s statements in the Birla-Parakh matter. In an interview to The Economic Times on October 17 he first defended his agency’s filing of FIR’s against an industrialist of repute and a bureaucrat of integrity. Said Sinha, “This FIR has resulted from a long preliminary enquiry (PE) process in which documents were collected… We have taken this step after collecting lot of proof during the PE. Nobody should doubt our intention or credibility or timing.”

Note the bit where he says ’lot of proof’. Because then he goes on to say, in the same interview, “The accused persons named in it (the FIR) - Mr Birla and Mr Parakh - may turn out to be innocent at the end of the probe.”

If Sinha says the CBI has collected a lot of proof, why is he saying that Birla and Parakh may be found innocent? As the CBI’s boss, what he should instead be saying is that they are bound to be found guilty, given the quantity (and presumably quality) of proof collected.

[caption id=“attachment_1179567” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sinha may be operating as per the whims of his political masters. AFP photo[/caption]

Perhaps Sinha doesn’t understand the meaning of proof. He could me confusing it with “leads” or “clues”, which don’t constitute evidence. If he can’t make the distinction, he ought not to be the head of the country’s top investigating agency.

Or does Sinha actually mean (between the lines, via ambiguity) that even though there is a lot of proof, the accused may be found innocent after a typical CBI cover up?

Something like what might have happened in the recent Pawan Kumar Bansal “Railgate” scandal when the former Railways minister was given a clean chit by Sinha despite considerable evidence that his nephew was accepting cash from senior officers in return for promises of lucrative postings.

In all likelihood, Ranjit Sinha, in his avatar of caged parrot, is simply playing it safe. He has left his options (and logic) open in the Birla-Parakh caseto suit the whims of his political masters.

In the past, he has been open about his political ‘friendships’ most famously with former the now jailed Lalu Prasad Yadav. Once upon a time, almost two decades ago, Sinha was involved in “investigating” the fodder scam case against Lalu in Bihar as a relatively junior CBI officer. Sinha and then CBI Director Joginder Singh were reprimanded by the Patna High Court for diluting the report of the main investigating officer, UN Biswas.

No controversy has ever halted Sinha’s rise to the very top of India’s police establishment. He commands a position of almost unparalleled power - in addition to several ongoing high profile cases the Supreme Court has now asked him to investigate 14 instances of criminality that arise out of the Radia tapes.

Unfortunately, so long as the only logic that appeals to Sinha is the logic of personal survival, he will continue to fail the CBI’s real mandate (prosecuting criminals, not harassing innocent people). Sadly, that also means he will succeed at pleasing his political masters.