New Delhi:
Law Minister Ashwani Kumar today said that he will not resign from office despite the CBI admitting that he asked to see a copy of its report on its coal investigation before it was submitted to the Supreme Court.
(Read: CBI says report was shared with Law Minister, PMO)"I have done no wrong, the truth will prevail," Mr Kumar said. He also said that the document he saw was a draft, and not the final version that was given to the court, but he is on thin moral ground.
Sources say Mr Kumar met the PM and told him to wait for the Supreme Court hearing on April 30 before taking any step. Senior party leader Kamal Nath, speaking to reporters in Delhi, also said it's important to see what action the Supreme Court recommends on the 30th of this month at the next hearing.
At the meeting with the PM, the Law Minister did not offer to resign and reportedly said, "As law officer it's my job to see legal inputs. There is no case against Coal or Law Ministry."
In
a two-page affidavit, the CBI told the Supreme Court that last month, the draft of the report given to judges on March 8 "was shared with Hon'ble Union Minister for Law and Justice as desired to him." The opposition says this proves that the minister tried to impede the CBI's autonomy and investigation.
(Read: Opposition wants PM, Law Minister to resign)The CBI also says that the report was previewed by a senior bureaucrat in the Prime Minister's Office and the Coal Ministry. The document is meant to be confidential between the agency and the judges who are monitoring why coal fields were allocated to private players without a transparent bidding process.
The admission of the CBI today is damaging and the PM and Congress president Sonia Gandhi called an emergency meeting of senior ministers to discuss the consequences. The Law Minister did not attend.
Three days before the report was given to the court, Mr Kumar called a meeting at his office which was attended by CBI director Ranjit Sinha and the officer handling the coal investigation, OP Galhotra. The minister allegedly suggested a series of changes.
The CBI director in his affidavit today did not disclose whether those changes were implemented.
(Read affidavit here)