The CBI on Thursday denied that it had sent its Press release on Coalgate controversy to the PMO for vetting. Claiming that sending such Press releases to PIB “was a routine practice”, the agency denied it sent it to the PMO or PIB officials before releasing to media.
The CBI was responding to The Pioneer report dated April 18 titled ‘PMO gets CBI Press note first, media later.’
“CBI wishes to strongly deny allegations that its Press note was sent to the PMO for vetting. The news item is incorrect and will mislead the general public. The allegation in the news item that a draft Press release was sent to the PMO 12 hours prior to release to the media, is completely false. No such Press note or Press release of the CBI was either prepared or sent on April 15, 2013, to the PMO or PIB officials.
“The clarification issued on 16th April, 2013 at 12.21 pm was sent for uploading on our CBI website and to PIB officials simultaneously for release. The NIC server was down, therefore, the standby mail IDs of the CBI and PIB were used for issuing the Press release, as is a routine practice,” said CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra.
The Pioneer replies: The newspaper never wrote that the release was sent to the PMO for vetting. The documents with the newspaper show that the release was sent to the PIB and PMO 12 hours before it was released to the media. As a responsible newspaper we duly contacted the CBI spokesperson and reported her version.