New Delhi: Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval may be asked to quit following his outburst against Attorney General GE Vahanvati in the coal scam case, according to sources. This comes as the two top law officers of the government are engaged in an open war in the case.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called a meeting late on Monday night of Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar to discuss the fallout of the letter written by Additional Solicitor General and CBI counsel in the case Harin Raval, to Attorney General GE Vahanvati. In that letter, he accuses the Attorney General of interfering in the CBI's case.
As a fallout, sources say neither Vahanvati nor Raval may be present in the Supreme Court on Tuesday for that crucial hearing. The government is likely to be represented by Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran and Additional Solicitor General Paras Kuhad and the CBI will be represented by UU Lalit.
Raval in his letter has alleged that he has been made a scapegoat in the case. Raval also says that the AG had interfered in the CBI case and lastly Raval also narrates the sequence of event of the meeting between the AG and Law Minister in preparing the coal report.
"On 6th March, I received a message from your end, asking me to see the Law Minister. During the course of discussions, the draft of one of Status Report of one of the preliminary inquiries was shown to the Law Minister and was perused by him as well as by you. Other status reports of the investigations of the 9 regular cases were requested to be shown to you at your residential office. Despite the above facts while replying to queries you took a stand that the contents of the Status Report were not known to you. On account of your statement, I was forced to take a stand, in court, consistent with your submission. I have a feeling that I am sought to be made scapegoat," Raval said in the letter.
Raval has written the letter to clear the air surrounding the misleading statement made in the court on March 12. On March 12, both the Attorney General and ASG had told the court that the coal report was not shared by the CBI with any political executive. But subsequently to the embarrassment of the government, the CBI director in an affidavit on last Friday told the SC that the coal scam report was shared with the Law Minister and two officers from the PMO and Coal Ministry.
Meanwhile, the government has refused to comment on the controversy. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari said, "The matter is subjudice and shouldn't go into the matter of propriety."
The Opposition reacting to the letter has hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "The Government of India colluded with Raval in willful misinterpretation of facts before the SC. We are more concerned to know what the accountability of the Prime Minster is because the Prime Minister himself is an object of investigation," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
The ASG has thrown open a pandora box by the allegations. What more proof does the country want about the culpability of the Prime Minister? The PM should resign," BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.
Meanwhile, sources have told CNN-IBN that government is likely to tell the apex court that the Law Minister did no wrong in seeing CBI's report.
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