The supreme court on Thursday asked CBI director Ranjit Sinha to stay out of the agency’s investigation into the 2G scam. In a major embarrassment for the country’s premiere  investigation agency, the apex court said it found “prima facie credible” the documents submitted by noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan  in which Sinha is alleged to have gone out of his way to interfere in the 2G probe.

The court order comes following Bhushan’s application filed in September in which a copy of the visitor register of Sinha’s residence was produced as proof of his alleged transgression. Among the visitors were two senior Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group officials whom Sinha has admitted meeting at his residence but also denied giving them any favours.

A bench led by chief justice HL Dattu, while refusing to elaborate on the reason for removing Sinha from the probe, said it was not giving detailed, elaborate orders to protect the “fair name of the institution and reputation of the CBI”.

Bhushan, who is also one of the petitioners in the 2G case, has alleged that the CBI director was trying to help some of the accused.

The court, meanwhile, has also recalled its September 15 order in which Bhushan was asked to disclose the identity of the whistleblower who leaked the visitors' register. Bhushan had responded that revealing the name would put the whistleblower’s life in danger.

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