The Supreme Court on Monday directed new CBI chief Alok Verma to lead a criminal probe against the former CBI director over his private meetings with the accused in the coal block allocations scam. It also observed that a "prima facie case has definitely been made out for investigation into the abuse of authority" by Ranjit Sinha. This will be the first such instance where a CBI director will conduct a criminal investigation against a former chief of the agency. Sinha retired as CBI director in November 2014, less than a fortnight after he was removed from the 2G probe by the apex court over the contentious meetings - he had reportedly met some of the 2G accused as well. On Monday, a bench led by Justice Madan B Lokur ordered Verma to pick two officers of his choice in the CBI and lead a special investigation team (SIT) to carry out a probe to ascertain whether Sinha's meetings resulted in scuttling inquires, investigations and prosecutions being carried out by the agency in the court-monitored coal block allocation cases.