Supreme Court to examine CBI's status report in coal scam

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will examine the status report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the coal block allocation scam.

The CBI in its report has mentioned that 16 FIRs were filed in the illegal coal block allocations to private companies and has completed its investigations in six FIRs so far.

These FIRs pertain to the period when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in charge of the coal ministry.

The report also mentions that in certain coal block allocations, no criminality has been found and accordingly, these can be taken out of the probe and that all missing files on the coal scam have been found.

The CBI has been probing the coal block allocation scam, in which it has been alleged that for several years, the government gave away mining licenses arbitrarily, without a transparent bidding process.

According to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), an estimated loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores was caused to the national exchequer in the coal block allocation scam.

The opposition has repeatedly targeted the Prime Minister, who was in charge of the Coal Ministry between November 2006 and May 2009.