The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plans to register 14 more cases in connection with the coal block allocations scam, as recommended by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
The agency had earlier recommended closure of enquiries into the allocation of 64 coal blocks citing lack of prosecutable evidence.
Since there was a difference of opinion between the investigating officers and their supervisors on the issue, they were forwarded to the CVC for a review following a Supreme Court directive.
The CBI has so far registered 19 cases of alleged irregularities in the allocations. The agency had instituted three preliminary enquiries into the allocations made between 1993-2004 and 2006-2009.
PTI adds:
The court, while hearing coal block cases, had in late March asked the CVC to give its suggestions whether the cases can be closed or charge sheets can be filed in these cases.
The CBI was accused by an NGO, Common Cause, that the probe into the scam was not moving fairly and there were instances that without seeking opinion of the Central Vigilance Commission, the agency was filing closure reports in regular cases.
The bench had also taken note that there are cases in which senior officials of CBI have overruled investigating officers after the preliminary enquiry on the issue of filing the regular cases and charge sheets.
The agency had registered a total of three preliminary enquiries related to coal scam allocations between 2006 and 2009, allocations between 1993 and 2004, and projects given under the government dispensation scheme. There are two other preliminary enquiries which are related to missing files.
