Coalgate: Let CBI do its job, says Kumar Mangalam Birla
02 Dec 2013
Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who is among those charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the coal block allocation scandal, indicated after a meeting with finance minister P Chidambaram that he had no intention of interfering in the probe.
"Let the CBI do its work. It is not fair for me to comment on that," Birla told newspersons after the meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
The industrialist had met Chidambaram earlier on 18 October and 5 November and law minister Kapil Sibal last week.
The CBI has named Birla and former coal secretary P C Parakh in its FIR charging them with criminal conspiracy and corruption in connection with alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks eight years ago.
The CBI alleges in its first information report that Birla in 2005 unduly persuaded Parekh to give his aluminium company Hindalco a coal block that was earmarked for two state-owned companies, Mahanadi Coal Fields and Neyveli Lignite.