Unhappy CBI didn't question ex-PM Manmohan Singh, says PC Parakh

Hyderabad: Former coal secretary P.C. Parakh on Saturday blamed judicial arrogance for the weakening of cases related to coal block allocation scams.

Speaking at a function to release his book “The Coal Conundrum – Executive Failure and Judicial Arrogance” in the city, Mr Parakh flayed the CBI, saying that on October 15, 2013, eight years after he retired, sleuths landed at his flat with a search warrant and registered an FIR against him. 

“Reputation doesn’t matter to the CBI. When the entire civil service expressed its dismay at what the CBI had done, its chief Ranjit Sinha, in his interactions with the press, said it was the IAS lobby. But, it was not the IAS alone, Central associations of all the three All India Services, including IPS to which the CBI chief belonged, condemned the action of the CBI,” Mr Parakh said.

He added: “Ten months later, the CBI filed a closure report in the CBI court, stating that there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy, dishonest intention or criminal misconduct by a public servant against the persons named in the FIR. The decision to accommodate Hindalco in Talibara-II block was found to be taken in the larger interests of the country.” 

What was the hurry to close the case, the former bureaucrat asked the CBI and the court. 

“To the learned judge, 10 months is too short a time to complete investigation, but to me, facing the ignominy of committing grave crimes of corruption, abuse of office and criminal conspiracy, those 10 months appeared longer than my whole life,” he said.

Mr Parakh said that the judge was not happy that the CBI didn’t question former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, before submitting its closure report. 

“The judge directed the CBI to make further investigations. The CBI, after further investigations, submitted two more closure reports. The judge, however, was still not satisfied and decided to take cognizance of criminal offences not only against me and Mr Birla named in the original FIR, but also against the former PM. How the judge misdirected himself in drawing wrong conclusions, entirely based on presumptions and surmises, without an iota of evidence of any wrong doing, has been explained point by point in my book,” the former bureaucrat said. 

Mr Parakh quoted judgements related to cases from 1998 to 2010 and pointed out the “judicial arrogance” in the book.

While releasing the book as chief guest, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner P. Shanker emphasised the necessity of amending laws like the Prevention of Corruption Act.

“The PC Act should protect honest officers. Investigative agencies like the Vigilance Commission submit many reports to the government, but nobody deals with the reports and nobody reads them. I submitted many reports to Cabinet Secretary and even the PM,” he said.

Former RBI governor Y. Venugopal Reddy said he was disappointed that no publisher had come forward to publish the book.

During the panel discussion, Dr Sanjay Baru and Mr Vikram said that the book has valuable intervention, but borders on contempt of court. 

“But it has been written with courage,” they said.