Supreme Court issues notice to CBI seeks response over Transfer of Officers involved in the 2G probe

The Supreme Court of India sought a detailed explanation from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over shifting of two senior officers investigating the 2G Spectrum allocation scam.

In a petition filed by Subramanian Swami, the CBI Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover stated that one of the two officers, Mr. Ashok Tewari, the Joint Director of CBI, had already been relieved after completion of his deputation tenure.

However, an unsatisfactory bench comprising of the Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Arun Mishra issued a notice to the CBI directing it to file its reply within two weeks explaining why the transfer of the investigating officers was necessary.

According to the petition, two investigating officers (Mr. Ashok Tewari and Additional Director of CBI, Mr. R.K. Dutta) who were part of the 2G scam probe from the beginning were taken off the case. Apart from that, Advocate Prashant Bhushan who appeared for the petitioner requested the bench to pronounce an order to bring back both the officers to restart and continue the ongoing investigation in the 2G case until the trial is completed.

The petitioner argued that while the investigation is still going on, such transfers directly violate the previous orders of the Supreme Court that condemned transfer of investigating officers from 2G cases without the prior permission of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has scheduled April 20^th, 2015 as the next date for hearing this matter. The CBI is also directed to file a status report in the 2G case investigation on the same day.