Ashwani Kumar appointed Special Envoy with Cabinet rank

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has appointed former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar as his Special Envoy to visit Japan in the rank of a Cabinet Minister.

The move comes nearly three months after Kumar had to resign as Union Law Minister.

Kumar had resigned as the Law Minister in May after the government was finding it difficult to defend him following the Supreme Court's scathing remarks over changing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) status report in the coal scam.