CBI to tell the truth

Law Minister in trouble; BJP demands his resignation

• CBI chief refuses to file affidavit in SC denying the charges
• Even Sonia not impressed with the minister's conduct

New Delhi (Agencies): The Central Bureau of Investigation will file an independent report before the Supreme Court on April 26 informing the apex court that Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Prime Minister's Office officials tried to interfere in the coal blocks allocations probe status report sources in the investigative agency said on Sunday. Three CBI joint directors were summoned by Kumar days before the status report was filed. During the meeting with Kumar, several amendments in the status report were suggested and some were incorporated by the CBI. The BJP has demanded the Law Minister's resignation or his dismissal by the Prime Minister for his role in the episode. The minister is now depicted as the fall guy even by his own party leaders. The striking thing about the UPA government's alleged "vetting" of the CBI report on the Coalgate scam is the sense that it conveys of how brazen the Congress has become in abusing the investigating agency to cover up corruption charges. If the Law Minister and the Prime Minister's Office can intervene so blatantly to vet the CBI's probe status report that the agency filed before the Supreme Court, it points to a disquieting lack of concern about propriety in so serious a matter, virtually under the Supreme Court's nose. According to sources, the CBI Director has refused to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court on April 26 to support the government's claim that� Ashwani Kumar did not vet the report". Such a move, it added, would give the UPA additional cause for concern. The CBI chief, it claimed, had been resisting the suggestion from the UPA government that he should deny that he had been called to the Law Ministry to discuss the contents of the status report. If he had indeed been called to the Law Ministry � and the report had indeed been vetted � Sinha would be committing perjury if he denied it in his affidavit. Already, an effort is under way to make Ashwani Kumar the "fall guy" in the episode in order to limit the damage to the UPA government, which is sure to face Opposition heat when parliament reconvenes. Media reports suggest that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was unimpressed by Ashwani Kumar's defence of his conduct � that what he did was standard operating procedure � and was in fact livid at his "indiscretion". Other reports point out that Congress leaders are "perturbed" that the Law Minister chose to be involved in the drafting of the status report. One report quoted a senior government functionary of Ashwani Kumar as saying: "He should have kept a distance." All this reeks of an effort to ring-fence Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from the spreading fire of the corruption scandal. The scam has its roots in a time when Manmohan Singh was also handling the Coal Ministry portfolio, which is why the allegation that the Prime Minister's Office too pre-screened the report is so easy to believe.