NCP defends government on CBI affidavit

New Delhi, April 26 (IANS) The Congress's ally Nationalist Congress Party Friday came to the defence of the government, saying there was nothing wrong if the CBI "showed" the copy of the draft report on the coal block allocations scam to Law Minister Ashwani Kumar.

"There is a difference between sharing a report and showing a report. The law minister is a person with knowledge of law, there is nothing wrong in showing him the report," NCP leader D.P. Tripathi told reporters here.

"The CBI is saying clearly that there was no change in the report," he said.

Arguing in favour of the government, Tripathi added: "All universities are independent, yet their reports come to the UGC (University Grants Commission) and HRD (Human Resource Development) ministry. So, what is wrong if the report was shown to the law minister?"

The CBI Friday told the Supreme Court that it shared its March 8 status report on investigations into coal blocks allocation with union Minister for Law and Justice Ashwani Kumar and a senior bureaucrat in the Prime Minister's Office.

However, the CBI director in his affidavit also told the court that the investigating agency's status report of April 26 has been personally vetted by him, and not shared with anyone, including the political executive.