Routine meeting with Narayanasamy, asserts CBI chief

New Delhi, April 26 (IANS) CBI director Ranjit Sinha Friday defended his meeting with Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V. Narayanasamy the previous evening, saying it was a "routine meeting".

Talking to reporters after submitting the central investigating agency's affidavit to the Supreme Court Friday on the status report on coal block probe, Sinha said: "He (Narayanasamy) is our minister and what is (the) problem in meeting him... I keep meeting him."

Sinha met Narayanasamy at the minister's residence Thursday evening, and this created a political ruckus as the opposition parties alleged that the government has influenced the affidavit.

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.

Asked if any changes were made in the draft report on the coal scam by the government, Sinha said: "I will disclose everything before the honourable apex court on this issue. Before sharing it with the court, I can't share it with the public."

At an investiture ceremony Friday morning at the CBI Academy in Ghaziabad, adjoining Delhi, Sinha asserted that he would meet whoever he felt the need to.

"He (Narayanasamy) is my minister. I can meet him any time I want to," Sinha said, adding that he would meet anyone if there was need.

Narayanasamy is also minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office.