Coalgate case: Why was court kept in the dark: SC

Apr 30, 2013 |

New Delhi

In a big embarrassment to the government in the Coalgate case, the Supreme Court today termed as “very disturbing” the CBI affidavit on sharing its report with the law minister and others and slammed the agency for having kept the court in the dark on the issue.

Hearing the coal blocks allocation scam case in a packed courtroom, the bench said “suppression” of the fact that CBI has shared its probe report with the government is “not ordinary”.

A bench headed by justice R.M. Lodha observed that there was a “very disturbing feature” in the affidavit filed on April 26 by CBI director Ranjit Sinha and the agency must be restored to its independent position. Sinha, in his two page affidavit filed in the apex court, had said that the agency’s status report on coal allocation scam was “shared” with law minister Ashwani Kumar and senior officials of PMO and Coal ministry “as desired by them”.

The apex court said that sharing of information with the government about the probe into the scam has “shaken the entire process” and the CBI need not take instructions from “political masters” on their probe.

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