Parakh quizzed on matters beyond Hindalco on day 2

Parakh coming out after eight hours of questioning said he was 'satisfied with questioning'

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today quizzed former coal secretary Prakash Parakh regarding coal block allocations made during his tenure besides Talabira II which was given to Hindalco. Parakh was being grilled by CBI sleuths for thesecond day today.

The retired bureaucrat was called in in the morning at around11 am to the CBI headquarters and was still being questioned at the time offiling this copy.

Senior CBIofficial said that Parakh was being questioned by senior officers who are well versed with the technicalities of coal sector. Parakh in his recent book Crusader or Conspirator-Truth about Coalgate had written that the CBI had sent junior level officers to question him during the preliminary inquiry, whom he had to explain the difference between a coal block and a mine.

Parakh coming out after eight hours of questioning by CBI had said that he was "satisfied with the questioning." CBI isstill to decide whether they need to call Parakh for the third time for questioning.Parakh along with Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group andhis company Hindalco were named by CBI in its FIR in connection withirregularities in coal block allocation to the company.

On whetherthe agency plans to call Birla for questioning a top CBI official said that sofar in the probe the need to call him has not been felt. CBI is going to submitits status report in the coal scam till April 30 to the Supreme Court. The agencyhas been given May 7 deadline to complete its probe, however it is likely toseek more time to finish the probe.

So far ofthe 18 FIRs, CBI has filed closure report in four cases and filed chargesheetin two. It is likely to close more cases in the coming week. A top CBI officialsaid that the coal scam is "not as big a scandle as it is made out to be." He saidthat of the 300 odd companies that were being probed only 18 have resulted inFIRs and that many cases had to be closed as no criminality could be proved.