CBI to question directors of companies named in FIR

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is expected to question next week the directors of companies owned by the families of Congress Parliamentarian Vijay Darda and businessman Manoj Jayaswal, who have been named in the first information report (FIR) the agency filed in the coal allocation case.

According to people aware of the development, the directors of all five companies named in the FIR would be called by the investigation agency for questioning after the sleuths are through with scrutinising the documents recovered during the raids in their offices in 10 cities on September 5.

The companies named in the FIR are: AMR Iron and Steel, JLD Yavatmal, Navbharat Power, Vini Iron and Steel and Jas Infrastructure.

Among those who could be called by the agency are Vijay Darda, Rajendra Darda, Devendra Darda, Manoj Jayaswal, Anand Jayaswal and Abhishek Jayaswal. Members of the Darda and Jayaswal families are directors in JLD Yavatmal Energy.

Vijay Darda is a senior member of the Congress and also an MP and Rajendra Darda is a Congress politician from Maharashtra. The CBI has named all of them in its FIR. 

Although the association of Vijay Darda has now come to light, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused coal minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal of links with the Jayaswal family. The minister has denied the allegations. 

The companies have been named in the recent audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India that alleged Rs 1.86 lakh crore of undue financial gains to private companies allotted captive coal blocks. Interestingly, AMR Iron and Steel is the only company that not been named by the CAG in its report. During the day long raids, CBI had raided the premises of Mumbai-based Inertia Iron and Steel and Jayaswal Neco.

CBI has accused the companies of making false claims about net worth, earlier allocations and group companies to meet eligibility criteria to circumvent the coal block allocation process.