The Indian Express reported the findings and said the information could result in the government being accused of using the CBI for partisan purposes.

According to the The Indian Express senior CBI officials, including director Ranjit Sinha, were summoned by Kumar days before the status report was filed.

During a lengthy meeting, also attended by some officials of the law ministry, several amendments in the status report were suggested and some also incorporated by the CBI.

The The Indian Express also reported that the CBI's status report was similarly "vetted'' by senior PMO officials.

In March 2012, a leaked government audit suggested state miner Coal India had squandered more than $US200 billion by allocating coal blocks instead of allowing competitive bidding.

The report, which the Times of India called “mind-boggling”, ruffled reformers within the Indian coal industry, led to the opening of public coal block auctioning and recently resulted in direct corruption accusations against the country’s chief of government.

The CBI report was an investigation into the matter.

The government defended the allocation of coal assets in a May 2012 statement from the Ministry of Coal.

“If the coal blocks were not made available between 2005 and 2010, it would have resulted in higher imports causing outflow of foreign exchange and would have had deleterious effect on large investments in crucial sectors like power and steel,” it said.

The ministry said allocation of coal blocks was intended to assist Coal India’s lone stewardship of the industry and accommodate the needs of the country’s expanding energy sector.

“The allocation of coal blocks was never looked upon as a potential source for generating revenue for the central government,” it said.