Did Law Minister, PMO get CBI to 'tone down' Coalgate report to SC?

In an embarrassment for the scam-ridden United Progressive Alliance, the Central Bureau of Investigation is likely to tell the Supreme Court that its status report on the controversial coal block allocations was vetted by the Law Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office before it was submitted to the court.

The revelation also beats hollow the investigating agency’s claim that it is an institution that operates independent of the political executive.

Senior officials, including the CBI’s director Ranjit Sinha, were allegedly summoned by Law Minister Ashwani Kumar before the status report was filed before the Supreme Court and several amendments were suggested of which some were included to ’tone down’ the report, reported the Indian Express.

“We resisted as much as we could, but yes, some toning down was done following the meeting,” a CBI officer who was present at the meeting is quoted as saying in the report.

The report was also examined by senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office but it isn’t known if further changes were incorporated following the meeting, the report stated.

The Law Minister refused to comment on the affidavit that the CBI will file before the Supreme Court.

The CBI is likely to have to disclose the two meetings to the Supreme Court after the investigating agency’s director was instructed to file an affidavit that the status report submitted by the agency on 8 March was “vetted by him and not shared with political executives”.

The Supreme Court’s order had come after a disagreement over the status report between the CBI and government.

The CBI had informed the apex court that investigations into the coal block allocations have established irregularities by government authorities in allocation of the natural resources and around 300 companies are under its scanner.

In an affidavit filed before the apex court, the agency had said it is taking up the probe against each and every company which has been allocated coal block since 1993 and “in particular during the period 2006 to 2008”.

The agency had also placed before the apex court a list of the companies and their directors against whom the FIR has so far been lodged.

The agency had said it is not revealing all information of its probe in order to “preserve the confidentiality and integrity of the inquiry”.

Ironically, it is this confidentiality that comes into question with the revelation  of the law ministry and PMO examining the CBI’s report before it was submitted to the apex court.