Heart of CBI draft report changed, says BJP

The BJP Wednesday alleged that the heart of the CBI draft report in the coal allocations controversy had been changed and said the Supreme Court has made some "serious observations" in the matter.

Party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said the Supreme Court Wednesday made serious observations about the functioning of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and "how investigation was carried out in Coalgate".

Naidu said the Supreme Court had called the CBI a "caged parrot" that "repeats its master's voice" and that it had many masters.

He said the court had also asked the CBI if it was an observer or investigator.

"The court made some observations by which we can infer that the case is diluted, the investigative team is truncated, more importantly, the heart of report has been changed," Naidu said.

The CBI told the Supreme Court Monday that four changes were made at the instance of Law and Justice Minister Ashwani Kumar and officials of the Prime Minister's Office in its draft report on the probe into coal blocks allocation, but evidence against any suspect was not removed.

In a nine-page affidavit, CBI director Ranjit Sinha had said "there was no deletion of any evidence against any suspect" and the "central theme of the status report" was "not changed".