Govt won’t let CBI quiz PM adviser, ECs

New Delhi: The CBI's probe into Coalgate has hit another hurdle with the Centre not allowing it to question three top bureaucrats who had held crucial positions during the period under investigation. 

    In July, the investigation agency had approached the department of personnel and training (DoPT) for its clearance to question adviser to the prime minister T K A Nair, chief election commissioner VS Sampath and election commissioner H S Brahma. Sources said the request was turned down recently and the agency will inform the SC about it at the next hearing on Coalgate set for September 10. 
    While permission to question Sampath and Brahma was declined on the grounds that they hold constitutional positions, no reason was given for turning down the agency's request to examine Nair. 
Govt, CBI fight over nod to probe babus 
    The CBI, which was dubbed a "caged parrot" by the Supreme Court not long ago, showed remarkable assertiveness in the apex court on Thursday as it locked horns with the Centre over whether it needed government's prior permission to question bureaucrats even in courtmonitored probes. P 10 'CBI men who took calls must be quizzed' 
New Delhi: The CBI, probing the coal blocks scam, reportedly wanted to question T K A Nair, principal secretary to the PM during UPA-1 as well as during the initial years of UPA-2, to understand the PMO's role in the allocation of coal blocks between 2006 and 2009 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held charge of the coal ministry. It wanted to question Sampath and Brahma because they had served as power secretaries between 2008 and 2009. CBI director Ranjit Sinha confirmed that the agency had sent requests for permission to question the trio. 
    CBI sources said, "We need to examine people who took important decisions and not some junior ministry officials dealing with files. We have already interrogated hundreds of people from various ministries and states but we need to examine these important people for our probe to move ahead." 
    Significantly, DoPT gave the agency the goahead to question 17 officers who had served as chief secretaries of states like Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh as part of the Coalgate probe. 
    The agency has also questioned central government power functionaries like former power secretaries Anil Razdan and R V Shahi and former coal secretaries C Balakrishnan, Alok Perty and P C Parikh. 
    CBI chief Ranjit Sinha on Tuesday informed the Public Accounts Committee chairman that the CBI was still to get all the documents it needed from the coal ministry to conduct a comprehensive investigation into Coalgate. 
    "It's been six days now since the Supreme Court gave a deadline of two weeks to the government to hand over all the files, but we are yet to get a positive response from the coal ministry. It seems that we may not get the documents from the ministry. We will have to look for the files in the offices of Coal India Limited, Ranchi's Central Mine Planning and Design Institute, Comptroller and Auditor General and the attorney general and approach state governments because we have to wrap up the investigation by December at all cost," he said.