Evidence is now emerging that the CBI director, Ranjit Sinha, maybe under surveillance of the Intelligence Bureau with which the government’s premier investigating agency had crossed swords over the alleged involvement of a senior IB officer in two cases of alleged fake encounters in Gujarat.

An investigative story in an English newspaper has revealed damaging details of Sinha meeting two influential senior executives of Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group “at least 50 times” over the last 15 months at his official 2, Janpath, residence in the national capital. Sinha has not outright denied that he met the two ADAG executives whom the newspaper has identified to be Tony Jesudasan and A N Sethuraman.

The story which does not carry the reporter’s byline claims that the newspaper has access to the guest register which contains details of the precise timings when the Jesudasan and Sethuraman visited Sinha’s residence, the registration numbers of the vehicles used to reach the CBI chief’s home and the Reliance companies the cars are attached to.

While the story hints that the meetings could be ADAG’s attempts to influence the CBI in the 2G scam, it’s possible that the IB mounted a clandestine operation on Sinha especially after the two agencies – one the government’s premier investigating agency that is responsible for probing corruption-related cases and the other the country’s domestic intelligence gathering outfit – fought over the former’s decision to prosecute an IB special director, Ravindra Kumar, who was allegedly involved in the infamous Ishrat Jahan and Sadiq Jamal Mehtar fake encounter cases in Gujarat.

IB could have placed an under-cover operative at the entry gate where visitors to top government officers’ residences must enter all details like name, vehicle number and purpose of their visit.

Such operations are not unknown as far as the IB is concerned. It can tap phones of senior government functionaries holding sensitive posts and even politicians, both in government as well as those in opposition. The IB has a great deal of expertise in such surveillance. By leaking the guest register to the newspaper, the IB appears to have taken sweet revenge against the CBI in general and its director, who took an extreme stand in defending his agency’s decision to go after Ravindra Kumar in particular.

The moot question is: what action will the government take against Sinha who, as chief of the elite anti-corruption agency, should have insulated himself from any influence from business houses, especially those allegedly involved in financial scandals? Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to whom Sinha reports directly, has called for zero tolerance of corruption.

But it remains to be seen whether a no-nonsense prime minister will take swift action against the CBI chief who, according to another newspaper report, had allegedly allowed a company owned by a wheeler-dealer meat exporter’s daughter to host events and parties for the investigating agency.