NEW DELHI: Former
CBI director Ranjit Sinha (68), who presided over investigations into politically sensitive cases, passed away early on Friday after an illness at his home in south Delhi’s Hauz Khas. Sinha, who had been unwell for two days, tested
Covid positive on Thursday evening.
The 1974-batch Bihar cadre
IPS officer took over as the 26th CBI director on December 3, 2012, and retired on December 2, 2014. Prior to this, Sinha served as director general of ITBP and the
Railway Protection Force.
As CBI chief, he is said to have managed to get the agency director more financial powers after informing the
Supreme Court that he had to route every small file to the government. His tenure also saw CBI busting bribery cases involving the chief executive officer of
Censor Board, a railway board member and the MD of a public sector bank.
But these were dwarfed by the “caged parrot” barb the SC aimed at CBI after it emerged that Sinha had given in to pressure from the UPA government and had shared with the then law minister, Ashwini Kumar, the status report of the coal block scam probe. His reputation was hit harder after it was revealed he met “persons of interest” with regard to the 2G spectrum probe at his residence. This resulted in CBI taking him off the probe 12 days before his retirement and the agency had the awkward job of probing its own former chief.
Sinha stood his ground despite pressure to push the CBI probe into the Ishrat Jehan “fake” encounter case in a direction that could have had political repercussions in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
“I have only seen my criticism in the last few weeks in media that I forgot that I have done other work as well in 40 years of my career,” Sinha had said on the day he retired.
“The
Central Bureau of Investigation is deeply saddened to learn the demise of Ranjit Sinha, former director, CBI. CBI extends its deepest condolence and sympathy to the bereaved family,” a statement from the agency said.
Ranjit Sinha had tested Covid positive on Thursday