Ashwani Kumar goes to PMO, denies meeting PM

Law minister Ashwani Kumar, who is under attack over vetting of CBI probe report on coal blocks allocation scam, on Thursday went to the Prime Minister's Office, triggering speculation that he met Manmohan Singh but he denied it.

Law minister Ashwani Kumar, who is under attack over vetting of CBI probe report on coal blocks allocation scam, on Thursday went to the Prime Minister's Office, triggering speculation that he met Manmohan Singh but he denied it.

Meanwhile, Attorney General GE Vahanvati met the Prime Minister and briefed him on Wednesday's proceedings of the Supreme Court in the coal issue.

Kumar was inside South Block, the office of the Prime Minister, for about 30 minutes.

This led to speculation that he had met Singh to discuss the critical observations made by the Supreme Court over the vetting of CBI report on coal block allocation.

However, when confronted later, Kumar said, "I did not meet the Prime Minister today."

It was later known that the Prime Minister was then at Rashtrapati Bhawan for a meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee.

Sources said Kumar met officials in the PMO to discuss the situation arising out of the Supreme Court's observations.

However, this apart, there were no strong observations against Kumar, who is struggling to retain his position in the Cabinet, with the opposition demanding that he resign for vetting the CBI report.

The apex court had on Wednesday pulled up the CBI, PMO and Coal Ministry officials for changing the "heart" of the coal scam probe report.