Ashwani Kumar appointed as Prime Minister’s special envoy with Cabinet rank

NEW DELHI: Ashwani Kumar, who resigned as Union law minister for interfering with the CBI’s coalgate investigations, has been appointed as the prime minister’s special envoy with Cabinet rank.

The Prime Minister has nominated Kumar “to visit for up to seven days as PM's special envoy for that period (in the rank and the privileges of a Cabinet minister) to maintain the momentum of high-level exchanges with Japan.

An official letter to Kumar said the appointment was to “prepare for the upcoming visit of Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan and the Prime Minister of Japan to India.” Kumat resigned as law minister following Opposition’s attack on him after the SC came down heavily on the CBI for allowing him to vet the draft of the agency’s draft on Coalgate.

The SC had questioned the credibility of CBI probe into the coal block allocations scam and had asked for a thorough and qualitative investigation.

Expressing strong displeasure at governmentt's interference in the Coalgate probe report, the SC had said the “the heart of the report was changed” on the suggestions of the minister and government officials. PM had initially resisted pressure for his ouster from the government.