Disappearing of files bid to shield PM in coal scam: BJP

BJP today alleged the Congress-led government was trying to shield Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the case of missing coal block allocation files and insisted that soft copies of the documents be shared with CBI.
Though the main Opposition exercised discretion inside Parliament and only demanded that Singh, who held the coal portfolio from 2006-09, explain to the House how the files had gone missing, it charged outside that the files could have disappeared to protect the Prime Minister.
"Congress has been fully exposed in the case. The case of missing files is yet another effort to save the prime minister in the coal scam. First they tried to deny there was a scam in the allocations and now Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal is trying to mislead the nation by saying the missing files are from pre-2004 period," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

He said Jaiswal was forced into silence when Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley asked if he could confirm that none of the missing files is post-2004.
"I have seen in the Public Accounts Committee meeting that the CBI director said several files are missing from the 2006-09 period. Every PAC member has heard him say that," Javadekar said, adding that this is hampering the probe.
BJP maintained that even CBI has expressed suspicion that files which are missing are relevant to the case.
"In the PAC meeting, CBI said certain files are missing, some are untraceable, some have not been located while the ministry is still searching for other files. This is an attempt to prevent the CBI from knowing the truth till the time the polls are over. Soft copies of these files- the databases which would be there in the PMO and coal ministry computers- should be shared with CBI," Javadekar said.