Additional Solicitor General Haren Rawal wrote a letter to Attorney
General G E Vahanvati in which he alleged that he has been made a
'scapegoat' in the coal scam issue. Here is the full text of the letter.
Learned Attorney General Sir,
Sir, as a leader of the Bar and our team of Law Officers, I had
expected guidance from you Sir, in discharge of my professional duties,
notwithstanding the fact that we deal matters entrusted to us
independently. Having reflected upon what is being debated in public
domain for a past couple of days and more particularly since the morning
of last Friday, with a very heavy heart, I am constrained to address
this letter to you to make the record straight and take the liberty of
reminding you of the facts which are within your knowledge and of which
corroboration exists.
The trigger point of this letter is the remark made by you to me,
on Friday 26th April, 2013 inside the Gentlemen's Cloak room of the 2nd
floor, when you asked me "Harin, Why are you so angry with me" and I
politely replied to you. You further remarked that "you did not
contradict me in Court". Sir, you are aware that on the contrary, the
truth is otherwise. It was I, who did not contradict you in Court.
You will kindly recall the sequence of facts during hearing that
took place on 12th March, 2013 in respect of Item 11 in Court 5. I had
entered the Court room a little late as I was on my legs before some
other Court. During the hearing when you were on your legs, certain
queries were put to you on basis of the facts stated in the Status
Report filed by the CBI in a sealed cover. You will also kindly recall
that you had remained present even for mentioning on 8th March, 2013,
when permission was sought for filing status report in a sealed cover
instead of filing of an affidavit as per my statement recorded in the
order dated 24.01.2013.
During the course of hearing when you were called upon to respond
to certain paragraphs of the Status Report as regards the decision of
the Government and the Screening Committee in the matter of allocations
of coal blocks, you had not only exhibited ignorance of the facts stated
in the Status Report which you had earlier perused, but had made a
statement that what is stated in the Status Report was not to your
knowledge and same was not shared with the Government. In fact, during
the course of hearing, I was also called upon to show you those relevant
paragraphs from the copy of the Status Report that was made available
to me during the course of hearing by the CBI officials instructing me
in the matter. The same was shown to you in Court.
The order dated 12.03.2013 records a prayer made by you Sir, for
grant of some time to enable the Central Government to file an
additional affidavit on the aspects which were earlier not dealt with in
the counter affidavit already filed.
I am to further request you to recall your memory that I was
asked to attend a meeting in your presence with the Hon'ble Law Minister
to consider whether the CBI should disclose the status of investigation
on an affidavit in compliance of the order dated 24.01.2013 or should a
Status Report be filed. This meeting was attended by you Sir, besides
Director CBI and Joint Director O P Galhotra amongst others.
You will also recall that I had reiterated my position namely
that the statement made and recorded in the order dated 24.01.2013 to
make known to the Court the status of the investigation through an
affidavit of a competent officer was made not only after due
consideration and discussion held with me by the CBI officials only on
23.01.2013 prior to the hearing, but also on instructions received by me
from them as well as the instructions reiterated to me in Court. Having
reiterated my stand, I was a silent spectator when a decision was taken
to file a Status Report instead of an Affidavit, which was to be shown
to you as was decided in the meeting.
You will also kindly recall that on 6th March, 2013, while I was
in Court, I received a message from your end, asking me to see the Law
Minister at 12.30 with the Status Report. The message received by me was
forwarded to the Joint Director, CBI by me. You were already present
there when I reached slightly late. You would also kindly recall that at
the said meeting, during the course of discussions, the draft of only
one of Status Report of one of the preliminary inquiries was shown to
the Hon'ble Law Minister and was perused by him as well as by you.
Certain suggestions were made, including by you, to the CBI, some of
which were accepted.
No suggestions emanated from me. You will kindly further recall
that as you wanted to leave, to attend Court for a mentioning matter,
other status report of the investigations of the 9 regular cases were
requested to be shown to you in the evening at about 4.30 p.m.
I was also asked to be present at your residential office. After
you left, I left shortly thereafter as I also had to attend hearing of
amentioing matter at 2 P.M. In compliance of the above, the CBI
officials brought the drafts which were perused and settled by you Sir. I
was present in your residential office.
You had also asked me to mention the matter on 7th March, 2013
which was not possible for me on account of personal reasons. The matter
was mentioned on 8th March, 2013 by me to seek permission to file
Status Report in sealed covers.
You had remained present during the mentioning. As a matter of
fact, if my memory does not fail me, it was submitted by you that, the
Status Report contains much more details than what could be made known
to the Court by an Affidavit to be filed in compliance of the order
dated 24.01.2013.
Despite the above facts while replying to the queries on
12.03.2013, as regards what was contained in the Status Report, you had
deemed it appropriate to take a stand that the contents of the Status
Report were not known to you, which fact you knew to be incorrect.
On account of your statement, I felt embarrassed and was forced
to take a stand, in Court, consistent with your submission made as
Attorney General for India, that the contents of the Status Report were
not known to you and that they were not shared with the Government.
It has constantly pained and anguished me that I have had to face
unnecessary indignation on account of your intolerant temperament
towards the conscientious discharge of duties especially in high profile
cases. I have held you in great esteem as leader of our team but your
flip flop attitude towards me has always put me under unnecessary
pressure.
I have retained a copy of this letter in my office for my
records. I have also deemed it appropriate to simultaneously send a copy
of this letter to Hon'ble Law Minister.
I have a feeling that I am sought to be made scapegoat but I am confident that truth will always prevail.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
(Harin P Rawal)
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