The Supreme Court on Tuesday held former CBI interim director M Nageswara Rao guilty of contempt, rejecting his apology for transferring the investigating officer probing the Bihar shelter home rape case against a top court order.
The Court sentenced him to sit in the court till the rising of the day and imposed a fine of Rs. 1 lakh.
The bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi called Rao’s attitude brazen.
Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for Rao, made a fervent plea for leniency, saying that Rao’s decision to transfer shelter officer was an ‘error.
The bench said, “we did not understand how Rao could relieve the investigating officer without taking the court into confidence.”
On Monday, Rao had admitted that he committed a “mistake” in transferring former joint director AK Sharma and apologised to the Supreme Court and offered unconditional and unqualified apology, saying he had no intention to circumvent its orders.
On February 7, the bench, came down heavily on CBI for transferring its former Joint Director A K Sharma, who was probing Bihar’s shelter home case, out of the agency in violation of the court’s order and directed its then interim director M Nageswara Rao to personally appear before it on February 12.
“I sincerely realise my mistake and tender my unconditional and unequivocal apology to this court. I specially state I have not willfully violated the order of this court,” Rao had said.
Apart from Rao, the bench also sought appearance of all other CBI officers who were involved in the transfer process of Sharma on February 12.
