In what could be seen as a brazen attempt by the Government to influence the Coalgate probe, the CBI on Monday submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court disclosing that “significant” changes in the status report were introduced by the Union law Minister Ashwani Kumar, PMO officials and the Coal Ministry.
The latest affidavit filed by CBI Director Ranjit Sinha on Monday did not spare Attorney General Vahanvati either. It said that the top law officer had seen the draft status reports and proposed “minor” changes.
The status report submitted to the court in a sealed cover on March 8 incorporated all changes proposed by the AG, law Minister, and Joint Secretary level officers in the PMO and Coal Ministry, who have been named in the document, the CBI said. The latest affidavit was filed at the directive of the court, which on April 30 had asked the CBI to answer six questions.
Sinha assured the SC that no names of suspects or accused were removed from status reports. “The consequent changes have neither altered the central theme of the report nor shifted the focus of enquiries or investigations in any manner,” the CBI Director said. The affidavit accepted that certain “significant changes” were made at the directions of the law Minister and the two bureaucrats.
It was the Minister who struck off a portion in the report, which faulted the process of allocation of coal blocks by the Screening Committee that maintained no broad sheets or charts for this purpose.
He even directed “deletion” of a sentence on the scope of enquiry with respect to the legality of allocations when amendments in law were in process, the affidavit said.
Since the meetings with the Minister were not minuted, the CBI Director based the statements on his own recollections and that of his officers.The CBI said the twin changes were accepted “since both pertained to the tentative findings of the CBI which would be arrived at with further clarity on more enquiries.”
The Director defended his action to share the report with the Minister by stating: “There is nothing in the CBI (Crime) Manual to guide whether status reports in respect of ongoing investigation in a sub-judice matter are to be shared with others.”
However, this absurd claim will have few takers as the agency brass ought to know that its status report cannot be dictated by the very persons who are being probed by it.
PMO Joint Secretary Shatrughna Singh also vetted the report with Joint Secretary (Coal) AK Bhalla in the office of CBI Joint Director OP Galhotra and made significant changes in the report.
They struck off two portions - a tentative finding of the agency on the absence of a system regarding allocation of specific weightage/points, and another that related to non-existence of approved guidelines for allocation of coal blocks.
What is more shocking is the fact that these officials interacted regularly with CBI sleuths. These interactions were not just limited to production of requisite files, documents, information and clarification, as was evident from the affidavit.
“Both these officials went through the draft status reports pertaining to preliminary enquiry 2 (allocation during 2006 and 2009) and preliminary enquiry 4 (allocation between 1993 and 2005).”
The Director also candidly informed the court that no attempt was made to hide the sharing of the report with the political executive and Government officials.
On the emphatic assertion made to the contrary by the agency’s counsel ASG Harin Raval, who has since resigned, Sinha stated that the assertion was made by the counsel “on his own” without taking instructions from the senior-most officer of the CBI who was present during the hearing on March 12.