New Delhi: Senior CBI officer Vivek Dutt, who headed the Coalgate scam probe team, and three others were on Saturday sent to three days in the agency's custody by a Delhi court for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 15 lakh from a businessman to favour him in a land dispute case. Superintendent Dutt, CBI inspector Rajesh Chandra Karnatak, alleged middleman Rajesh Pachisia and businessman Dinesh Chand Gupta were produced before the court where CBI sought seven days police custody of the four accused.
"All the accused are remanded in CBI custody till 21 May," Special CBI Judge VK Gupta said. Dutt, however, claimed innocence and alleged a conspiracy has been hatched to keep him out of the Supreme Court-monitored Coalgate probe team.
During the hearing, the CBI prosecutor told the court that Dutt and Karnatak were in the same branch in the agency and Pachisia was in regular contact with them. CBI said Dinesh Gupta had a land dispute and a cheating case was registered against him at Amar Colony police station here and Dutt used to pressurize the Delhi Police officials, who were investigating the cheating case, to quash the FIR and for this he had demanded Rs 15 lakh from Gupta.
The prosecutor said the SHO of Amar Colony police station was initially reluctant but later he succumbed to the pressure and the FIR was quashed. CBI said Pachisia was apprehended on Saturday when he was handing over Rs 15 lakh to Karnatak....
06:25 PM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: With Lok Sabha elections due next year, newly appointed Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said he would strive to achieve objectives in the run up, including making legal procedures help fuel economic growth and appointment of judges through a transparent process. Outlining his "broad objectives", Sibal said, "Legal processes and procedures should not be an impediment to economic growth, but must fuel it." He said simplification and...
02:19 PM, May 13, 2013
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to take cognizance of the case of CBI keeping a scribe in the dark for 20 months about the closure of preliminary inquiry against him for allegedly trying to influence the Enforcement Directorate's probe in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. "We will take cognizance of it," a bench comprising justices GS Singhvi and KS Radhakrishnan said after senior advoacte Ram Jethmalani showed...
08:50 PM, May 01, 2013
New Delhi: Attorney General Ghoolam E Vahanvati issued a clarification on Wednesday and said he never interfered with the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) status report on coal block allocation scam. He also denied he has a copy of the report. Vahanvati has been accused by former ASG Harin Raval of having tampered with the CBI coal status report. Raval had written in his letter to Vahanvati, "Certain suggestions were...
07:28 PM, May 01, 2013
The coal scam probe and the SC's indictment of the agency on Tuesday has brought the focus back on the need for a independent CBI. ...
09:55 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: In what is likely to spell more trouble for the government, sources on Tuesday said that the CBI's draft status report on coal scam was vetted by Attorney General GE Vahanvati. According to sources, Vahanvati settled the status report himself by making hand written changes on a draft copy. Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval, who resigned earlier in the day, had in his letter to Vahanvati on Monday...
09:20 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval on Tuesday resigned over coalgate. In a statement, he said, "I am resigning as ASG in SC as desired. Please accept this with immediate effect and oblige. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the government." Raval had represented the CBI in earlier hearings in the Supreme Court. His resignation comes just after his explosive letter to Attorney General GE Vahanvati whom...
06:47 PM, Apr 30, 2013
Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal was extremely cautious when CNN-IBN probed him on the coal scam. ...
05:59 PM, Apr 30, 2013
The Supreme court on Tuesday tore into the UPA government and the Central Bureau of Investigation demanding answers on the government's alleged interference in the CBI coal allocations probe. ...
05:40 PM, Apr 30, 2013
The Supreme Court has made scathing remarks on the present government while hearing the coal scam case. It has gone to the extent of labelling it as a massive breach of trust that has shaken the foundations of the country. How does the country's main Opposition party expect the ruling coalition to respond to these allegations? BJP's spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh joined IBNLive readers for an interaction on the issue....
05:00 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: The Supreme court on Tuesday tore into the UPA government and the Central Bureau of Investigation demanding answers on the government's alleged interference in the CBI coal allocations probe. The Supreme Court sought to know why it was kept in the dark about the CBI sharing the investigation with the government. It called the government's vetting of the coal report a "massive breach of trust which has shaken...
04:48 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party on Tuesday declined to comment on BJP's demand for the Prime Minister's resignation over the coal scam issue, saying "every party has its own opinion". "We have said it earlier also. The CBI director himself has admitted it so what is there to say?" SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters outside Parliament. He was asked to give his party's view on BJP's demand for resignation...
03:15 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: Left parties on Tuesday termed as "meaningless" the demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation over the coal allocation issue but asked him to face Parliament as he "owes an answer" to the country. CPI(M) also dubbed the disruption of Parliament as "match fixing" between BJP and Congress. "Demanding resignation of the government is meaningless and it does not happen," CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters outside Parliament....
02:59 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: BJP on Tuesday said the "public spat" between the Attorney General and the Additional Solicitor General reinforces its view that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should own up "responsibility" in the coal scam and step down. "The public spat between the Attorney General and the Additional Solicitor General on how, who pressurised whom on the CBI report on coalgate is not only saddening but also very, very regretable," BJP...
02:20 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: As the Supreme Court expressed deep concerns over the CBI affidavit on the coal block allocation scam, Lok Sabha on Tuesday was rocked by the issue with the Opposition leaders lambasting the government and accusing it of being corrupt. "I want to tell the country that this government is the most corrupt government in independent India. Parliament is being disrupted because of the corrupt government, not because of...
01:49 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: Terming it a "massive breach of trust" and a matter that has "shaken its foundation", the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday took a very serious note of the CBI affidavit on the coal block allocation scam and asserted that the probe agency must be "liberated" and should not be controlled by "political masters". The apex court also slammed the probe agency for having kept the court in...
01:08 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: Terming it a "massive breach of trust" and a matter that has "shaken its foundation", the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday took a very serious note of the CBI affidavit on the coal block allocation scam and asserted that the probe agency must be "liberated" and should not be controlled by "political masters". The apex court also slammed the probe agency for having kept the court in...
12:07 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will tell the Supreme Court on Tuesday that changes were made in the status report on the coal block allocation scam after a meeting between the probe agency and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, sources said. The probe agency is not going to hide anything from the apex court, according to CBI sources. The CBI had on Friday filed its affidavit on the...
10:56 AM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: In another twist in the coal blocks allocations probe and the embarrassment the government is facing, Additional Solicitor-General Haren Rawal, who is representing the CBI in the case, wrote to Attorney General GE Vahanvati on Monday and alleged that he was being made a scapegoat by him. Sources said on Monday night that Raval made the claim in a letter to Attorney General GE Vahanvati in which he...
10:29 PM, Apr 29, 2013
New Delhi: A day before the Supreme Court's observations on CBI's admission that its report on coal scam was seen by Law minister Ashwani Kumar, sources say that the Centre will say that both Kumar and the government did nothing wrong. The government's stand was finalised after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met the Attorney General on Sunday. The CBI had on Friday filed its affidavit on the coal block allocation...
09:16 PM, Apr 29, 2013
