Coalgate: CBI books 5 companies, conducts raids

Coalgate: CBI books 5 companies, conducts raids

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed FIRs against five companies and is conducting raids across the country on Tuesday as part of its probe into the alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks.

As per initial reports, the five companies - Jus Infrastructure, Vimmi Iron and Steel, Nav Bharat Steel, JLD Yavatmal and AMD Steel - have been booked were allotted coal mines in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. They are alleged to be guilty of misleading the screening committee that allotted the mines. 

The CBI fears that these companies cheated the screening panel into believing that they are capable of extracting coal from the allotted blocks and also on the intended use of the coal thus extracted.

The FIR also names unknown officials of the coal ministry and state governments who are believed to have played a role in ensuring allotment of mines to these companies.

Following the filing of the FIRs, CBI officials are conducting raids at 30 locations across 10 cities. Dhanbad, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Pune are among the cities where raids are being conducted.

Importantly, CBI interest in coal blocks allocation predates the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has quantified that the nation has lost around Rs 1.85 lakh crore (USD 37 billion) in coal blocks allocations to private players.

According to CBI spokesperson, five FIRs have been filed against five companies and unknown government officials for alleged cheating.

The CBI had also examined the past areas of operation of some of the companies which were allotted coal blocks in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, the sources said alleging some of these firms had been set up only for getting coal blocks allocated and the same was later sublet to other companies at a premium.

The agency has already questioned senior bureaucrats who were overseeing allocation of coal blocks during 2005-09, the sources said.

They said the questioning of the Coal Secretaries, who also chair the screening committee, was done to understand the issues involved in the allocation of coal blocks during the period and so far the agency has not found any irregularities on their part.

The filing of FIRs comes three months after registration of a Preliminary Enquiry into the coal scam by the agency on the directions of the Central Vigilance Commission.

The filing of the first set of FIRs will surely ensure that the issue continues to simmer at a time when the there seems to be no end to the government-BJP stand-off in Parliament over CAG report.

The month-long Monsoon Session, which already lost the previous two weeks to BJP's unrelenting demand for resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, appears headed for a complete washout.