The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a case diary of a coal scam case involving HINDALCO and former coal secretary PC Parakh, in a sealed cover before a special court.
The court has now fixed the matter for consideration of CBI’s closure report filed in the case for December 12.
Two days after the court had directed it to furnish the case diary of the matter; the CBI submitted two bundles of documents in a sealed cover before the court.
“In compliance of the court’s order, we are filing the crime folder as well as the case diary,” senior Public Prosecutor V K Sharma told special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar.
During the brief hearing, the court said if there is still any clarification to be sought in the matter, it will ask the agency and then pass order on the closure report.
The court was hearing a case in which an FIR was lodged against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, ex-Coal Secretary P C Parakh and others relating to allocation of Talabira II and III coal blocks in Odisha in 2005 to Hindalco. CBI had later on filed closure report in the case.
The special court dealing with the coal block allocation cases had on Tuesday asked the CBI why former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not questioned as a prosecution witness in the case involving Parakh and Adiyta Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla.
Singh was then in charge of the Coal Ministry.
Special Judge Bharat Parashar questioned the investigating officer who submitted that “though initially his [PM] examination was found necessary, later on, the investigating agency found it was not required.” The officer said that though he had examined certain officers of the Prime Minister’s Office, the then Coal Minister was not questioned. He said the accused were questioned, but their statements were kept only in the case diary and the crime file. Later, Parashar asked the investigating officer to produce the “case diary and the crime file.”
The CBI had earlier sought closure of the case. However, when the Special Judge pulled it up for filing a patchy probe report, it filed a revised one and took a U-turn, stating that “there is prima facie enough material on record” to prosecute Parakh and Birla.
The case pertains to the allocation of coal blocks to Hindalco, owned by the Aditya Birla Group, allegedly in violation of rules.
The CBI had last year lodged an FIR against Parakh, Birla and others, alleging that Parakh had reversed his earlier decision not to allocate coal blocks to Hindalco and shown undue favour to it.
