Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to close the case involving illegal coal allocation to Hindalco group for failing to collect evidence, a daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The paper has said that CBI has failed to gather evidence against former PM Manmohan Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary P C Parakh, resulting in the closure.
Quoting sources, the paper said that the premier agency is expected to submit a 'formal closure report' to the court next week without questioning either Birla, Singh or Parakh.
The agency had registered a case naming Birla along with PC Parakh and unknown officials of Hindalco and coal ministry last year under various sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy and corruption for alleged irregularities in the allocation of two coal blocks nine years back.
Birla has been named since the decision to accomodate Hindalco in the coal block, meant for PSUs only, was taken after he had a meeting with Parekh in the latter half of 2005.
The USD 40 billion (Rs.2.45 lakh crore) conglomerate has denied receiving any FIR and refuted allegations of any wrongdoing.
Immediately after filing an FIR with the court, the CBI had conducted searches at various places in the country. The CBI move was criticized by India Inc and former bureaucrats.
Hindalco had denied allegations of irregularities, claiming, “we wish to state unambiguously that we have followed every process required for allocation of coal completely, as stipulated by the Government policy.” “This relates to media reports on an FIR naming Hindalco and our Chairman on coal issues. Apparently, this seems to be part of a larger case entailing coal allocation to companies, and being one of the companies, we are being investigated also,” it had said.
With PTI Inputs
