Coalgate: Kumar Mangalam Birla, Nalco, Hindalco in CBI’s new FIR

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the coal mine allocation scam, has come up with its fourteenth chargesheet, which names Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary P C Prakasm among others.

The central agency has filed charges against Kumar Mangalam Birla and former secretary coal PC Parakh besides officials of aluminium makers Nalco and Hindalco, relating to cheating, forgery and financial misrepresentation.

CBI, which had earlier filed charges against Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal, is also conducting searches in Delhi, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Mumbai in connection with the latest charges.

The Aditya Birla Group chief has been named in an FIR relating to the allocation of the coal block Talabira II in Jasakuda district of Odisha. This coal block was allocated to Hindalco in 2005, although the company did not meet the requirements then – an undue favour by the government.

CBI had, last month, questioned Naveen Jindal who has been named as an accused in the twelfth FIR file by the CBI in coal scam.

The CBI says that Jindal's company, the Jindal Group, which was not recommended by the Jharkhand government for coal block allocation, however, got a share of the coal blocks. The CBI has also accused him of misrepresentation of facts (See: Coalgate: CBI files FIRs against Naveen Jindal, ex-minister Rao). 

The investigating agency is under pressure from both the Supreme Court and the central government in its probe into the coal block allocation scam

While the Supreme Court has directed CBI to wrap up its investigation into how and why coal fields were allocated to private players without a transparent bidding process, the case is particularly sensitive for the UPA government as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in charge of the coal ministry at the time of the scam.