Pranab Mukherjee had cautioned Manmohan Singh over Coalgate findings, says former CAG

Former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai has claimed that he and the then Finance Minister President Pranab Mukherjee had cautioned former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh over Coalgate, yet the latter had not taken any concrete steps to stop the proceedings.

The former CAG said that the Prime Minister knew that the allocation led to lobbying as he had been warned beforehand, but chose not to do anything about it.

Rai further said that former Coal Secretary PC Parakh had written a letter to the Prime Minister, warning him about the findings in the Coalgate, after which Dr. Singh had wanted Parakh to be removed from his post. Rai also alleged that Dr. Singh was asked to take the auction route, but he did not and said that 56 of 57 allotted mines were not being used, whereas the government had allotted these mines to boost power supply.

In an interview with Times Now, Rai also accused Dr. Singh of to be squarely responsible for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam. Rai said that the then Sports Minister M.S Gill was against the appointment of Suresh Kalmadi and had even written a letter to the Prime Minister about it, but Dr. Singh gave Kalmadi total control over the CWG. He added that a lot of money was spent by an unaccountable body.

Earlier, Rai had revealed that three former Congress Members of Parliament had put pressure on him to keep Manmohan Singh's name out of the 2G scam report. He also alleged that contrary to reports, Singh was well aware of the impending scam.