A Supreme Court bench, headed by CJI Justice Ranjan Gogoi, held the former CBI interim Director M Nageshwar Rao (IPS:1986:OR) “guilty of contempt’’ for violating the Supreme Court’s order over transfer of A K Sharma (IPS:1987:GJ); the probing officer in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. The court sentenced Rao till rising of the Court and slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh for contempt.

The Apex Court rejected the apology issued by M Nageshwar Rao terming his act in “blatant violation of the court’s order.”

Appearing for Rao, Attorney General K K Venugopal had sought a sympathetic view from the bench. Venugopal told the court that Rao’s action of transferring former Jt Director A K Sharma was a “mistake, but not a willful one.”

The CJI, in turn, observed that even if the Apex Court does take into account Rao’s apology, “his career record will remain blemished, as he has acted in contempt by his own admission.”

Rao had, 11 February, admitted that as an interim chief of the CBI he committed "mistake" in transferring former joint director AK Sharma, who was probing Bihar’s shelter home cases, and apologised to the Supreme Court saying he had no intention to circumvent its orders.

It may be mentioned that A K Sharma was on October 23 transferred from the CBI Hqrs and later the NaMo administration appointed ADG in CRPF. Then it was considered as if he ousted from CBI.