SC's caged parrot remark is correct: CBI chief

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief Ranjit Sinha Thursday accepted the Supreme Court's observation that the country's premier investigating agency was a "caged parrot" that "speaks in its master's voice".

Asked by reporters about his views on the apex court's caged parrot remark, Sinha said: "Whatever Supreme Court said is correct."

Speaking on the autonomy of the agency, Sinha told reporters Thursday that "it was for the government to decide".

However, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said the court had just made a comment and it was not an order. Moreover, the government had done nothing wrong, he added.

"It is a comment by the court and not an order. If it was a written order, then we would have reacted to it. The government has done nothing wrong... The investigation has not been affected and there was no intervention in the investigation," he told reporters.

The court made the observation Wednesday on Sinha's second affidavit filed Monday which stated that Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and senior officials of the Prime Minister's Office and the coal ministry had made certain changes in the report on the allocation of coal blocks.

The bench also asked the government whether it was contemplating a law to make the working of the CBI independent and insulate it from extraneous intrusion and interferences. It also made it clear that choice was with the government and in case government dithered, the court would step in.