CBI showed Coalgate report to PMO, law minister, coal min

CBI showed Coalgate report to PMO, law minister, coal min

Agency Chief Contradicts Govt In SC

Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN 

New Delhi: In a damning acknowledgement that rendered law minister Ashwani Kumar’s tenure precarious and pushed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the brink of a huge embarrassment, CBI chief Ranjit Sinha told the Supreme Court on Friday that the agency was made to share the contents of its status report on coal scam probe with PMO, Kumar and the coal ministry. 
    “The draft of the (coal scam investigation) status report was shared with Union minister for law and justice (Kumar) as desired by him prior to its submission before the Supreme Court,” Sinha said in an affidavit in response to the SC’s March 12 order asking him to clarify whether the agency had shared the contents of the status report with the government before it was filed in the apex court on March 8.
    The CBI chief told the court that he had to show the status report also to the PMO and the coal ministry because they too were keen on going through its contents before it was placed before the apex court. “Besides the political executive, it was also shared with one joint secretary level officer each of PMO and ministry of coal as desired bythem,” Sinha said.
    The affidavit contradicted the assertion made by additional solicitor general Harin Raval on CBI’s behalf in the SC on March 12 that the probe status report was a “classified document meant only for the eyes of the judges”, and that it was not shared with the political executive. The assurance was meant to allay the apprehension of a bench about political interference in the probe. 
UNRAVELLING OF A SCAM MARCH 22, 2012 | TOI breaks story on draft CAG report saying govt extended “undue benefits” totalling Rs 10.67 lakh crore to firms by giving them 155 coal acreages without auction from 2004 to 2009
MAY 29 | PM offers to quit public life and face punishment if charges proved
MAY 31 | CVC refers coal block allocation case to CBI AUG 17 | CAG submits final report, maintains govt didn’t auction coal blocks, allottees made ‘windfall gains’. Loss to exchequer pared to Rs 1.86 lakh crore
SEP 6 | PIL in Supreme Court seeks cancellation of 194 coal blocks allotted between 2004 and 2011. Lists 57 big pvt players as beneficiaries
MARCH 8, 2013 | CBI files status report in SC, says companies given coal blocks through false representations, no rationale in allocation
MARCH 12 | ASG Harin Raval, on behalf of CBI, tells SC contents of report not shared with govt
APRIL 15 | On plea of govt interference by NGO ‘Common Cause’, SC asks CBI chief Ranjit Sinha to state on oath that report not shown to govt
APRIL 26 | CBI chief tells SC agency shared report with PMO, law minister and coal ministryWHAT CBI AFFIDAVIT MEANS
    Worrying development for ‘scam’-hit UPA. Besides threatening law minister’s continuation, it has brought the scam even closer to the PM’s door and reinforced the perception of a cover-up
    All eyes will be on the SC’s move on April 30. A stern view of the govt’s role will spell bad news for the law minister & Cong
    Govt wary of a ‘smoking gun’ surfacing in the form of damning email from law ministry to PMO or a leaked draft of CBI’s original status report on Coalgate 
    May encourage BJP’s aggression, deepening the logjam in Parliament and making passage of UPA’s ‘showpiece’ legislations on food security and land acquisition more difficult
    Possibility of court deciding to oversee investigations
into Coalgate as in 2G scam Fiasco comes at a bad time for UPA 
    The Coalgate fiasco and the 2G fracas couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Congress, as the opposition offensive threatens to derail its campaign highlights for 2014 — that of having crafted laws for food security, land acquisition and real estate reforms. Parliament is yet to function four days into session and the opposition has said it will allow passage of Budget-related bills only.P12Times View: Make CBI autonomous 
    The perception that the CBI is used by the government of the day to browbeat/blackmail political rivals and protect its own has gained ground to such an extent that only the incurably naïve believe it’s neutral. Corruption cases are initiated, buried or resurrected depending on whether a politician, businessman or government officer is in or out of favour with the ruling dispensation. The CBI director’s admission in court that he shared the contents of a draft report with the very people in this government who were under investigation not only smacks of impropriety, it reinforces the agency’s reputation of being a handmaiden of its political masters. For the CBI to be fair, credible and effective, it must be allowed to function without interference. Such a proposal has been made time and again – most recently during the campaign for an effective Lokpal. Not surprisingly, it has been vigorously opposed by the people in power. The time has come for the agency to be made truly autonomous under law.Congress worried about impact on PM 
New Delhi: The confirmation of the undue interest taken by the PMO, the law minister and the coal ministry in the Coalgate investigation conducted by CBI, an autonomous agency, has rendered the “scam”-hit UPA vulnerable to a big blow from the court on April 30 when the matter is to be heard.
    Congress and government sources agreed that Ashwani Kumar’s continuation as the law minister may become untenable if the court views his intrusive interest as “serious impropriety”. But their worries extend far beyond what may happen to the law minister. Their real concern is the potential repercussions for the PM. As minister for personnel, Manmohan Singh is in charge of CBI. Not just that, CBI’s probe into the scam cover allocations made when he had held the portfolio. That the coal ministry, which is at the focus of inquiry, should have asked for and got access to the status report was considered audacious even by Congress leaders.
    With the opposition immediately asking for the resignations of the PM and the law minister on the ground that the “vetting” was meant to protect Singh, a worried Congress leadership went into a huddle with UPA allies to review the situation. The weekly meeting of the Congress core group also focused on what the court might do on April 30.
    Sources said parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath also called on President Pranab Mukherjee to brief him about the unfolding developments which threaten to thicken the perception of sleaze and scam under the UPA, and make a mockery of the claim about CBI being an independent probe agency.
    Importantly, the sequence of events leading to the affidavit go back to the suspicion of political meddling with the coal probe that the court expressed on April 12. The court seized upon Raval’s claim of government’s hands-off stance towards the probe by directing the CBI chief to state on affidavit that “nothing contained therein (in the status report) has been shared with the political executive”.
    In fact, Sinha, in his twopage affidavit, did a tight-rope walk, stopping well short of spelling out that the status report was vetted by either the law minister or the PMO even as he acknowledged that the agency had to share the contents with Kumar as well as joint secretaries in the PMO and the coal ministry when they expressed the desire to take a look.
    Sinha told the court that he would not share future status reports on investigations with the political executive. “The status report being filed before the SC on April 26, 2013, is personally vetted by me and that I shall continue to personally vet each status report which may be filed before the Supreme Court… I confirm that the present status report being filed in the Supreme Court has not been shared with any political executive in any manner whatsoever,” Sinha said.