New Delhi, May 8
The Supreme Court today took the CBI to task for changing the “heart” of the status report on its investigations into the coal scam at the instance of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and one Joint Secretary each from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Coal Ministry, besides Attorney General GE Vahanvati.

A three-member Bench headed by Justice RM Lodha directed CBI Director Ranjit Sinha to ensure hereafter that “no access of any nature is provided to any person or authority, including the Law Minister” or any other Central minister and law officers, including Vahanvati.

The Bench, which also comprised Justices Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, rejected the CBI Director’s contention that the changes made in the March 8, 2013 status report submitted to the SC had “neither altered the central theme of the report, nor shifted the focus of enquiries or investigations in any manner.”

“If you change the direction of the probe, how can you reach your destination,” the Bench asked CBI’s senior counsel UU Lalit, observing that the case had a “huge ramification.”

The Bench also took strong exception to the CBI “welcoming” two Joint Secretaries — Shatrughna Singh from the PMO and AK Bhalla from the Coal Ministry — to its office, letting them go through the probe reports and accepting their suggestions for changes.

Pointing out that the CBI had registered as many as 10 FIRs in the coal scams since 1993, the Bench wanted to know as to why the minister and others were intruding only into the probe relating to the period pertaining to 2006-09.

On the CBI Director’s statement that his officers “continues” to have “regular interaction” with the two PMO and coal officials with regard to the ongoing inquiry, the Bench said it was supposed to “interrogate, not interact.”

It was unfortunate that the CBI was still behaving like a “caged parrot with several masters” despite the clear directions issued by the SC in the Vineet Narain case relating to hawala transactions involving rich and powerful people 15 years ago for keeping the agency’s investigations from political interference, the Bench said.

The option of taking away the investigation from the CBI and handing it over to a special investigation team (SIT) was still open if the agency was unable to “stand like a rock instead of being like sand” in the face of intrusions and invasions from its political masters and bureaucrats, the Bench said.

Taking a serious view of the transfer of CBI’s DIG Ravikant Misra, who was heading the 33-member team probing the coal scam case, the apex court ordered his reinstatement and directed the government not to change the composition of the team without taking its permission.

The SC also directed the government to enact a law, if possible by July 10, to insulate the CBI from all sorts of interference. The Bench expressed its displeasure over the slow progress in the investigations, observing that nothing much had been done in the past one year.