Income Tax Departments submits Ex- CBI Chief Probe Report

The Attorney General of India in a case concerning the present CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, who has been accused by NGO Common Cause of frequently meeting Kanpur-based meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi at his residence, on Friday told the Supreme Court that a former CBI director (A.P. Singh) used to have daily conversations with Mr. Qureshi in code language.

The Appraisal report prepared by the Income Tax Department is based on the tapping of phones and monitoring of the messages and ‘BBM’s’ exchanged between AP Singh and MoinQuereshi.  Giving an over view of the appraisal report the A-G told a three-judge Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri that there was no mention of the name of the present CBI Director, though certain indirect innuendos could be inferred.

The Income Tax Department had earlier sent out Letter Rogatories to gain evidence to book MoinQuereshi. [http://www.livelaw.in/income-tax-sends-letter-rogatory-gain-evidence-book-high-profile-tax-evader/]. When the I-T department raided Qureshi's residence in February, officials had allegedly found BBM messages exchanged by him and Singh. Qureshi reportedly runs one of his offices from the basement of Singh's residence in New Delhi's Defence Colony.

The Income Tax report gave a clear indication that Qureshi was allegedly a conduit for the accused in several cases being probed by CBI and Singh, he said. “The report reveals an astonishing state of affairs (that is) wholly unbecoming and revealing the shocking conduct of a former CBI director, now a member of the UPSC. He was in regular touch with Qureshi and there were BBM exchanges between them on a daily basis and that too in code language.

Rohatgi made the remarks while presenting the summary of the I-T department's assessment report about Qureshi, which was filed in a sealed cover. Qureshi has come under scrutiny for violating tax laws.

The Bench said it would go through the report and documents placed by the A-G in sealed covers and consider the other aspects on the next date of hearing on December 8.

The case relates to the allegations made by Common Cause that the name of Mr. Qureshi figured many times in the “entry register” at the residence of Mr. Ranjit Sinha. The NGO alleged that Mr. Qureshi was a link between coal scam accused and the CBI director. Taking note of the allegations, the court had sought a report from the Income Tax department in its probe against Mr. Qureshi.

The Bench, meanwhile, took exception to the remarks made by the trial court against the investigating officers in the coal case. The trial court should stick to the legal issues and not make comments against officers appointed by the apex court. It also asked Investigating officer Rajbir Singh, who had offered to be relieved from the probe, to continue.