The CBI on Friday filed the final report on a further probe directed by a special court in the coal scam case against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal, former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and others.
Special Judge Bharat Parashar, however, took strong objection to the Investigating Officer (IO) not filing the report in a proper format and asked him to do so by January 23.
The report filed before the court contains Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) reports, list of witnesses and their statements recorded by the CBI.
The court had pulled up the CBI for the delay in filing the report, saying it was affecting the progress of the trial.
The court had allowed the CBI’s plea that it needed to probe the case further in the light of certain disclosures made by a chartered accountant Suresh Singhal, who had sought the court’s nod to turn approver.
It had also allowed Mr. Singhal’s plea for pardon and ordered the deletion of his name from the list of the accused.
the CBI had alleged that former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, also an accused in the case, had favoured Jindal group firms — Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Private Ltd (GSIPL) — in allocation of the Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.
Opposing the CBI’s contention, all the accused had said there was no evidence to show that they were in any conspiracy during the coal block allocation process. They had also denied the allegations levelled against them by the CBI in its charge sheet.
