BJP demands resignation of PM on coal scam issue

With CBI admitting that it had shared its status report on coal block allocation scam with Ashwani Kumar, BJP today demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that he was using the Law Ministry to save himself from the probe in the case.

"CBI today has stated that its affidavit was filed after interference by the government and this proves that the Law Minister was misusing his office to save the Prime Minister in the coal scam.

"BJP is now fully firm on its demand for resignation of the PM. The CBI affidavit proves that the Prime Minister wanted to save himself from the CBI inquiry using the Law Ministry," BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters outside Parliament.

He said in the country's "biggest scam where Rs 1.86 lakh crore have been looted, all the 142 coal blocks were allocated during the Prime Minister's tenure in the Coal Ministry."

Rudy said CBI was asked to share its report with the government even when the Supreme Court had directed the investigating agency not to share its report with anyone in the government.

CBI Director Ranjit Sinha today submitted before the Supreme Court that the agency's status report on coal allocation scam was "shared" with the Law Minister "as desired by him" and that senior officials of PMO and Coal ministry had also seen it.

Sinha's two-page affidavit filed on the direction of the apex court contradicts the claim made by the CBI counsel on the last date of hearing that the coal scam report was not shared with any member of the government.