Charge PM too says ex-coal secretary

After the Central Bureau of Investigation filed first information reports against Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary P C Parakh on Tuesday in connection with the improper allocation of coal blocks, (See: Coalgate: Kumar Mangalam Birla, Nalco, Hindalco in CBI's new FIR) Parakh said today if there was a conspiracy to help Birla land two coal blocks in Odisha for his firm, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must be charged as well.

"The PM cleared the decision, he is the third conspirator.  He is the final decision-maker," Parakh said, pointing out that Singh held direct charge of the coal ministry in 2005, when the contentious mining rights were conferred on Hindalco, a Birla company.

The CBI has alleged cheating and conspiracy in a scheme that allegedly resulted in the undue grant of mining rights to Hindalco, which makes aluminium, and brought charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1998.

The CBI is investigating how and why the government assigned valuable coal licenses to private firms without an auction or transparent bidding process, in what has become known as the coalgate scam.

The main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, today also reiterated its earlier stand that Manmohan Singh should be investigated for his alleged role in the scandal.

Parakh said that the committee headed by him, which decided on who would get coal licenses, reviewed two applications for the Odisha coal blocks.  The first was from Hindalco; the other was from a state-run firm. The committee decided that the state-run company should get preference, and that after it conveyed its decision to the cabinet, Birla met the prime minister and him separately to push Hindalco's case.

''Birla told the PM that we are the first applicant and are equally eligible and competent and our request has been unfairly rejected.  He also met me and made a similar representation. I found there was merit because they (Hindalco) were the first applicant," Parakh said.

This is the 14th FIR filed by the CBI in the coal block allocation scam. According to reports citing CBI sources, the Talabira II coal block in the Jharsuguda district of Odisha was initially allotted to state-owned Neyveli Lignite Corp Ltd, a lignite-mining and power-generating company. However, in 2005, after Birla met Parekh, the screening committee's decision was overturned in favour of Hindalco.

As soon as the FIR was filed, the CBI conducted coordinated searches at six offices of Hindalco as well as the residences of its officials in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bhubaneswar. The agency recovered ''incriminating documents'' during the raids, which it will scrutinise during the course of investigation, according to reports.

Apart from Birla and Parekh, the FIR names Hindalco representatives and other unknown officials.

In its audit report of August 2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General said that the exchequer suffered a revenue loss of Rs1.86 lakh crore because of wrongful allocation of coal blocks.

Recently, the CBI questioned Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal in connection with a case of alleged cheating and criminal conspiracy in bagging a coal block in Jharkhand in 2008. It has booked him in its 12th FIR.

Hindalco denies charges
In a statement, Hindalco's managing director D Bhattacharya termed the allegations paradoxical.

He said that Talabira II and III mines together had been allotted jointly to public sector undertakings Mahanadi Coal Fields and Neyveli Lignite, with Hindalco having a 15-per cent stake in the joint venture.

''The project for which this mine was allocated is ready to commission later this month, whereas the clearances to permit mining have not been received so far. Consequently, no mining has been carried out. This will mean delayed returns from our project, which has been set up on a capex of over Rs11,000 crores,'' the statement said.