Don’t delay prosecution for missing files, CVC tells CBI

 It was on the direction of the CVC that the CBI had registered and investigated the coal scam cases.

A crucial meeting which was scheduled to take place between CVC officials, which is monitoring the case, and CBI director Ranjit Sinha to discuss the uproar over the missing coal files has been called off. ‘CVC, after examining the list of missing files which has been prepared by the CBI, has reverted to the latter saying the files which CBI has already received are sufficient for prosecution,’ sources said.

The CBI had, on 14 August, written a letter to the coal ministry stating that 225 files and documents relating to coal blocks allocation cases had still not been handed over to it by the coal ministry. This included 167 files pertaining to the pre-2004 period during which NDA was in power. The CBI has said these files and documents were necessary for concluding the probe against various firms booked by the agency for alleged manipulation and concealing of facts. However, the coal ministry had requested the CBI to scrutinise the files already seized by them as the missing documents could be annexed to these files.

Following coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal’s statement on 17 August in Parliament that some files related to coal block allocations were missing, the Opposition BJP had disrupted the proceedings for two days seeking an answer from the government. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said in his statement that ‘he is not the custodian of coal files’.

The CBI on 3 September had sent a fresh list of missing files to the attorney general who forwarded it to the coal secretary. The agency has been maintaining that the files which they have received are not sufficient. It is being alleged that some documents pertaining to recommendations made by influential politicians for award of contracts are part of the missing files.