PAC questions CBI on its credibility

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) led by chairman Murli Manohar Joshi Wednesday posed a string of queries to CBI Director Ranjit Sinha and even questioned the credibility of the agency. Sinha had appeared to apprise the panel about the progress in the probe into both the CWG and the coal-block allotment scams.

The PAC reaction comes in the wake of the tape in which CBI prosecutor, A K Singh, was found sharing the legal strategy of the agency with Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra, an accused in the 2G spectrum case. The PAC draft report on the scam is still pending due to the deadlock between two sections of the committee.

Sources said the PAC members told Sinha that the latest controversy has put a question mark over the credibility of CBI. Sinha pointed out that the prosecutor has been removed from the case and the tape has been sent for a forensic examination to check its authenticity. The members asked Sinha for details of cases in which the CBI has filed closure reports, both after preliminary enquiry and at the level of courts.

Asked as to how the CBI has quantified the losses in the 2G spectrum allocation, Sinha said the losses could accrue when a criminal intent led to a loss to the exchequer. The CBI placed the loss figure at Rs 30,984 crore, of which about Rs 22,000 crore is from the allocation of 122 licences and over Rs 8,000 crore from the allotment of extra spectrum.

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