New Delhi:
The government, already accused of trying to obstruct investigations into how coal licenses were given to private players, is on the threshold of a new controversy.
Sources say that at a meeting with the CBI today, they will argue that the government is being wrongly accused of allowing important documents to disappear; instead, the government will claim that some of these files never existed.
The coal scandal is hyper-sensitive for the government because for some of the years under scrutiny, the Prime Minister held direct charge of the Coal Ministry. The opposition in the last two sessions of parliament has demanded his resignation over the alleged scam.
The government has already been accused by the CBI of using a faulty and obfuscated policy to allocate coal fields to firms, some of which are linked to or owned by leaders of the ruling Congress like Navin Jindal and Vijay Darda.
Some of the records sought by investigators relate to applications for coal fields that were cleared by the Prime Minister's Office.
The CBI ,whose investigation into "Coal-Gate" is being monitored by the Supreme Court, will soon file an FIR or police case about the files that have disappeared. The fir will have charges of destruction of evidence among other sections. But agency says the complaint will have to ne from coal ministry
Last week, the CBI declared 150 files and documents as "not received" - its list was prepared on the Supreme Court's orders.
" Your explanation that files are being searched for is not reasonable. This will not help," the court said last week to the government, asking "Is it an attempt to destroy records?"