New Delhi, Apr 15 (IANS): The BJP Monday accused the UPA government of "misusing" and "abusing" the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which it said has caused damage to the country's constitutional scheme and body.

"The CBI is used for political purposes. The misuse and abuse of the CBI by this government is continuing. It has caused a lot of damage to the constitutional scheme when the highest offices are involved in corruption," BJP spoksperson Meenakshi Lekhi said.

Lekhi questioned why the Congress had not stopped the CBI chief from meeting Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, who had allegedly vetted the report on the coal block allocation prepared by the agency along with officials of the Prime Minister's Office.

The BJP had earlier demanded that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe the alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks, saying that the UPA would not allow the CBI to function independently.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, India's official auditor, had last year revealed that the lack of transparency in the allocation of coal blocks to private players resulted in the loss of a whopping Rs.1.85 lakh crore ($37 billion) to the exchequer as on March 11, 2011.

Lekhi also said that the CBI was used to delineate the role of Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. She questioned the "assurance and undertaking" given by the government to the Italian marines, who are facing trial for killing two Indian fishermen last year off the Kerala coast.

"The entire structure has been told to bend down to suit certain purposes. I will be very interested to know what assurance that government of India seems to have given?" Lekhi said.