CBI files two new complaints in coal scam

The CBI Wednesday lodged new complaints against two companies over the alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks, an official said here.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named Castron Technologies Ltd., Castron Mining, BLA Industries Pvt. Ltd., the managing director of BLA Industries, and some public and private officials in the First Information Reports (FIRs).

"The allegations are that undeserving companies were allocated coal blocks. BLA Industries was permitted to sell coal in the open market against the principle of captive mining," an official said.

The formal complaints will be followed up with investigations and court cases later. The probe is being conducted into coal blocks allocations during the period 1993-2005.

The CBI has so far registered 14 FIRs and three preliminary enquiries (PEs) to probe allocations made between 2006 and 2009.

The new FIRs are likely to bring some cheers to the embattled UPA government, which has faced a consistent attack from the BJP over the indiscriminate allocation of captive coal blocks to private and public sector companies. Now, it can hit back at the BJP for similar wrongdoing.

CBI sources said that NDA's Dilip Ray and Karia Munda were coal ministers when the coal blocks were allotted to Castron Technologies and BLA Industries.

Searches were also being conducted in Jharkhand's Dhanbad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh's Narsimpur along with Delhi and Bhopal, officials said.

In October last year, the CBI registered a case against former coal secretary P.C. Parekh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, as a representative of Hindalco, a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group.

BLA Industries Pvt Ltd is a Mumbai-based firm incorporated in 1964 to own and operate coal mines. Castron Technologies Ltd is a Dhanbad, Jharkhand-based company incorporated in 1983 as an Iron and Steel Foundry to supply castings to Indian Railways and steel plants.