Only a SIT can bring out the truth

The New Indian ExpressFirst Published : 12 May 2011 11:03:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 13 May 2011 03:37:31 AM IST

The UPA government’s flip-flop on corruption stood exposed on Thursday when the Supreme Court pulled up its Enforcement Directorate (ED) for keeping it in the dark about filing a chargesheet against Hasan Ali Khan. The court was piqued by the fact there was no mention of the chargesheet in the status report on the case submitted to it by the ED on May 4 and its tone and tenor made it clear that the omission was deliberate. Noting that the chargesheet had been filed in a special court in Mumbai on May 6, Justice B Sudarshan Reddy said, “It is obvious that you had the chargesheet on May 4 and chose not to inform us.” The court also found it surprising that the chargesheet was not placed before the 10-member high-level committee formed by the government to circumvent formation of a Special Investigation Team.


When the apex court had started monitoring the Hasan Ali case, it had given rise to expectations that it would prove to be India’s most explosive money laundering case. But if media reports about the content of the chargesheet are true, it is turning out to be one of the biggest whitewash jobs in ED’s history. The chargesheet does not contain the names of any of the top politicians, bureaucrats or industrialists named by Ali during his interrogation. The ED investigations showed that his black money operations ran up to over Rs 36,000 crore, stashed in safe havens abroad. But the charges framed against him show that the scam was worth just a few hundred crore rupees.

It is clear that the government is going out of the way to ensure that the probe into black money operations of people in high places is sabotaged. Smelling the rat, the court has made it clear that any further action on the chargesheet by the Mumbai special court would be subject to its direction. However, it is too much to expect that an investigating agency working under the government can unravel black money operations, in which people occupying high positions and wielding tremendous influence are involved. Only a SIT working under the directions of the Supreme Court can bring out the truth.