The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday submitted before a Delhi court the final report on the investigation into a coal block allocation scam case in which Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh figure as accused.
The investigating agency submitted the report along with the statement of prosecution witness S. Jayaraman, former Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Messrs Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd., in a sealed cover.
The investigating officer of the case also moved an application seeking to place on record certain other records and statements of witnesses which, he stated, earlier could not be “inadvertently” placed on record along with the initial closure report.
Later, Additional Sessions Judge Bharat Parashar posted the report to March 11 for consideration. The probe agency had initially urged the court to close the case. But the court had rejected it. It had asked CBI to further investigate it.
The court had also directed it to examine the then Coal Minister (former P.M. Manmohan Singh) on the various aspects of the allocation of a coal block to HINDALCO in Orissa. Mr. Singh was holding the additional charge of the Coal Ministry at that time. HINDALCO is the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group. Later, CBI had recorded Mr. Singh’s statement. The Judge had also ordered examination of B.V.R. Subramanyam, then Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister, and re-examination of T.K. A. Nair, then Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office in connection with the case.
While ordering examination of Mr. Singh and the two officials, the Judge had observed that ``a concerted effort was being made to manipulate the entire Government machinery so as to protect the interest of M/s. HINDALCO.’’
