CBI director meets Jaitley

The meeting lasted for nearly an hour

Central Bureau of Investigation  Director Ranjit Sinha was on Friday present in a meeting of chiefs of economic investigating agencies with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, fuelling speculation over the former’s continuance on the post in the wake of the Supreme Court removing him from the telecom scam probe. The meeting lasted an hour, during which issues related to economic crimes, collection of intelligence and procedural hurdles in bringing back unaccounted money from abroad were discussed, sources said.

It, however, sparked speculation of a message being delivered by the government to Sinha to proceed on leave but there was no official confirmation. Sinha was asked by the apex court on Thursday to recuse himself from the investigations in the telecom spectrum scam.

Additional Director R K Dutta has been given the charge of investigations.

Sources in the government said besides Sinha, the meeting was attended by minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha and the chiefs of the Enforcement Directorate and Financial Intelligence Unit.

Due to retire on December 2, Sinha had yesterday suffered a major blow when the apex court removed him from the 2G probe, saying the allegations against him of protecting some accused appear to be "prima facie credible".

The court had handed over the case to the senior-most officer after Sinha in the investigating team probing the spectrum scam.