Coal block scam: CBI drops case against Kumar Mangalam Birla, Parekh

The CBI has filed a closure report in the coal block allocation scam case against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary P.C. Parekh and others in a court here, sources said Friday.

Besides Birla and Parekh, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had named other unknown people as an accused in a first information report lodged in October 2013.

The agency Thursday filed its closure report in the court of Special Judge Bharat Parashar, who will hear the matter Sep 1.

The CBI had booked them on charges of criminal conspiracy in the allocation of coal blocks and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. The CBI had booked Birla as a representative of the Aditya Birla Group and his group company Hindalco, one of Asia's biggest producers of primary aluminium.

It is alleged in the FIR that during 2005, the said people in criminal conspiracy with one another and then public servants by abusing their positions (and) as such showed undue favour to Odisha-based industry in allocation of Talabira-II and Talabira-III coal blocks along with a public sector undertaking of Tamil Nadu.