With the Supreme Court’s deadline to the CBI to complete the probe in the coal block allocation scam advancing closer, the investigating agency is still indecisive whether to call industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla for questioning, but will examine former Coal Secretary P C Parakh next week.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has been questioning senior executives of Hindalco for the past three days in connection with the case registered against the company for allocation of the TalabiraII coal block.
The Supreme Court had asked for a status report from the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate on the ongoing investigation on May 7. The CBI had set itself a deadline of April 30 to update the report details.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had lodged an FIR against Parakh, Birla, unknown officials and Hindalco last October as part of it coal block allocation probe.
Parakh’s book points fingers at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for being ineffective in managing the ministers.
The book said the Central Bureau of Investigation is “either outright incompetent or is playing a deeper game which I do not understand”.
So far, the CBI has registered 18 FIRs in the coal block allocation scam. Of these, it has filed chargesheet in two cases -- against Navbharat Power and AMR Iron and Steel -- and filed closure reports in two other cases against Vikash Metals and Kamal Sponge and Power.