Coal-Gate: CBI likely to admit Law Minister altered report for "language"

New Delhi: On Friday, the CBI's top officer is meant to explain in writing to the Supreme Court whether the agency's report on "Coal-gate" was reviewed by the government before it was submitted to judges last month.

Sources say that the CBI Director, Ranjit Sinha, is likely to admit that Law Minister Ashwani Kumar did make some changes to the language of the document, but that the essence of the report was not altered, and  the report was not watered down  to protect the government.  In its defense, the CBI will make the point that it indicted the government in the controversial report.  

Sources say that if the CBI admits that the minister amended the document, his continuance in office will be "untenable."

The admission will leave the government deeply embarrassed since the CBI's investigation is meant to be independent, and because its report is meant to be confidential between the court and the agency.

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The Supreme Court had asked the head of the CBI to confirm in writing whether the report had been seen "by the political executive."  

The coal scam is particularly sensitive for the government because for some of the years under review, the Prime Minister was directly in charge of the Coal Ministry.  The allegation against the government is that it cost the country thousands of crores because it did not follow a transparent bidding process when allocation coal blocks.  

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At the last hearing on March 12, the CBI faulted the government for not verifying the credentials of private firms who misrepresented financial and other records to land valuable coal fields.

Last week, NDTV reported that before that hearing, on March 5, the Law Minister held a meeting at his office which was attended by the Attorney General GE Vahanvati, the Assistant Solicitor General Harin Raval, the CBI Chief and OP Galhotra, the CBI officer in charge of the coal investigation.

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