The Supreme Court today termed as “very disturbing” the CBI affidavit on sharing its report with the Law Minister and others and slammed the agency for having kept the court in the dark on the issue. Hearing the coal blocks allocation scam case, the apex court said that suppression of the fact that CBI has shared its probe report with the government is not ordinary.
A Bench headed by Justice R M Lodha observed that there was a very disturbing feature in the affidavit filed on April 26 by CBI Director Ranjit Sinha and the agency must be restored to its independent position. Mr. Sinha, in his two page affidavit filed in the apex court, had said that the agency's status report on coal allocation scam was shared with Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and senior officials of PMO and Coal ministry, as desired by them.
The apex court said that sharing of information with the government about the probe into the scam, has shaken the entire process and CBI need not take instructions fromthe political masters on their probe. The Bench said, our first exercise will be to liberate CBI from political interference.
CBI Director's affidavit had contradicted the claim made by Additional Solicitor General Haren Raval on behalf of CBI on March 12 that the probe report in the scam has not been shared with any member of the government.
The apex Court further directed the CBI director to put on affidavit stating what changes were made in its status report and at whose instruction. The Bench asked him to clarify by May 6 as to why in the status report of March 8, no disclosure was made that draft report has been shared with Government. It also directed CBI chief to spell out the procedure being followed by CBI under guidelines on sharing status report on ongoing investigation.
The Court posted the matter for next hearing on May 8.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has said that he is studying the Supreme Court's observations on the affidavit filed by the CBI on coal allocation case. Dr Singh said, after studying the apex Court's observations, whatever action is called for, will be taken.

ASG Haren Raval has been replaced by senior advocate U U Lalit to represent the CBI in the case.