Coal block scam burning red hot

  Sensational details were revealed in the affidavit submitted by the CBI Director to the Supreme Court: CBI admits that the report on coal scam was examined by the Law Minister & PMO even before it was submitted to the Supreme court!

The Director of CBI, Ranjith Sinha  stated in an affidavit , that  Ashwani Kumar, the Minister for Justice at the Centre, officials in PMO , and Joint Secretaries in the Central Coal Dept saw the probe report on Coal allocation, before it was submitted to  the Supreme court
Sinha refused to clarify, whether any changes were made in the report, after it was examined by the Centre, but said that he would report everything to the Supreme Court.  To a question whether the CBI should be made an independent body, he said that it was for the Apex Court to decide. 
In August 2012, the CAG mentioned in its report on the allocation of Coal mines that the government had suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 1.86 lakhs on account of the allocation of coal mines to private parties. Irregularities were committed because the allocation was made by the screening committees instead of auction. The Supreme Court took up the case after a PIL was filed.
This is another example of how the Centre uses CBI as its private domain! The ex-directors of CBI mentioned it and the same is now being echoed by the present director.
The Congress government not only uses the CBI to harass its political opponents, but also to cover its own erroneous ways. The way CBI is conducting the case against YSR Congress party president, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is a classic prime example. The BJP, and the Left parties are up in arms against the CBI affidavit. CBI has become the Congress Bureau of Investigation, they have alleged demanding the resignation of Ashwani Kumar.
The CBI director further mentioned in the affidavit that the Union Law minister, Ashwani Kumar asked for the report to be placed before him. He, along with officials from the PMO, and the joint Secretaries of the Coal department also examined the report. But Sinha, the CBI Director was mum on whether the Centre had made any changes, after reading the report. The Opposition had accused the government of changing the report in ways to mitigate its culpability.
The CBI had earlier reported that it had not at any time shown its report to the government. Harin Ravel, the Solicitor General who argued on behalf of the CBI had stated on March 12 that the probe report was submitted directly to the Supreme Court. But the latest revelations by the director of CBI himself exploded a bomb in the face of the Centre. The Supreme Court had sternly told the CBI to file an affidavit that the probe report was not shown to any politicians and  that no report in future will be shown to anyone. Sinha was made to promise the same. Everyone is now holding their breath waiting for further examination of the case on 30 April.

How did it all began ?
It  began with the affidavit submitted by the CBI to the Supreme Court on March 8. The report said that there were many irregularities in the allocations made, many times to incompetent companies.  The CBI said that the cut off year for starting the investigation on companies was 1993, but it concentrated more on the period between 2006-2008.  About 300 companies were taken up for investigation. It has so far investigated 12 companies and filed FIRs against 9 of them. The Centre protested saying the CBI was incompetent to decide on the eligibility of the companies. The Supreme court admonished the Centre on the way it made the allocations to a few selected companies. The court warned that if steps were not taken to straighten things legally, it might be obliged to cancel  the allocations totally.

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-Sakshipost