The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has not filed any charge sheet against the officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in the coal scam case. And this in spite of these officials being under the scanner of the investigating agency for four years.
The CBI is examining the files obtained from the PMO in the case relating to the allocation of coal blocks by the then PM, Dr Manmohan Singh, who was also in charge of the Ministry of Coal.
The CBI had given a clean chit to Dr Singh in September 2015, saying there was no prima facie evidence to suggest he was involved in allocating coal blocks to any company. According to sources, the agency has so far filed 55 FIRs against various companies in the case.
The matter was raised in the Lok Sabha this week, following which Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the PMO, said: “The CBI has obtained these files in 20 cases. The investigating agency has examined officers of the PMO in this regard, who dealt the files of allocations of coal blocks.” He, however, did not name the former Prime Minister.
Singh said the CBI has not filed any charge sheet against the PMO officials and also not any matter to the government for taking action.
The CBI has filed 55 FIRs against various companies in connection with the investigation into the alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks. However, since the investigations are being monitored by the Supreme Court, the Coal Ministry does not have any detailed information on the status of these cases.
The Supreme Court had stated that “CBI shall henceforth ensure that secrecy of the inquiries and investigations into allocation of coal blocks is maintained and no access of any nature whatsoever in this regard is provided to any person or authority, including any Minister of the Central Cabinet.”
Out of 43 coal block allocations made during 1993-2005, the CBI has already closed its inquiry into 22 allocations. The agency had registered 16 regular cases covering 21 coal blocks for this period.