We are part of a system, need to consult: CBI

New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday said the probe agency is part of the government system and needs to consult and take opinions “on certain occasions”.

“The CBI does not exist in isolation. We are part of a system and need to consult and take opinion on certain occasions,” CBI chief Ranjeet Sinha said in a statement circulated in the media.

Talking to the media persons earlier, Sinha said the agency was not an “independent organisation”, and it was “part of the government”.

“I am a part of the government, not an independent organisation,” Sinha said.

Drawing flak for letting Law Minister Ashwani Kumar vet the draft report prepared by the agency probing the allocations of coal blocks, Sinha said he had not shown the report to an outsider.

“I have not shown anything to an outsider. Information was shared only with the law minister,” he said, adding that the CBI would hide nothing from the Supreme Court.

An apex court bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha has asked Sinha to file a fresh affidavit stating the changes made in the draft report vetted by the law minister. It also rapped the government for interfering in the CBI probe.

Last week, the CBI told the Supreme Court that it shared its March 8 status report with Ashwani Kumar and a senior bureaucrat in the Prime Minister’s Office.

File Photo : AFP