Coal scam: CBI to send judicial request to Malaysia for info

Taking its probe in coal scam to foreign shores, CBI will soon send a judicial request to Malaysia seeking information about a firm with which one of the accused Indian companies had shown a tie-up to bag a coal block in Chhattisgarh.
CBI sources said during the probe it had surfaced that one of the accused companies having financial net worth of Rs two lakh, while applying for a coal block, had shown a tie-up with a Malaysian firm having net worth of about Rs 4,600 crore.
The Indian firm showed the net worth of the Malaysian firm as its own to allegedly inflate its financial condition to become eligibile for coal block allocation in Chhattisgarh.

The agency during its probe found that the Malaysian firm had given a mere expression of interest to enter into an agreement with the Delhi-based company which was not legally binding but the company allegedly projected their networth as its own and got a coal block in 2008 by submitting inflated figures.
CBI now wants to get details of that arrangement between the Indian and Malaysian firm through its judicial request, also known as Letters Rogatory, the sources said, adding that the information would be used as evidence at the time of filing the charge sheet in the case.
The sources said this would be the first instance when CBI would be approaching a foreign country in its probe in the coal scam which started in 2012.

The agency has registered cases against the Indian company and its executives for cheating under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
CBI has so far registered a total 16 FIRs in the coal scam.
The agency is carrying out investigation into allocation of 195 coal blocks, which are covered by three preliminary enquiries (PEs)--allotments between 2006 and 2009, allocations between 1993 and 2004, and projects given under the government's dispensation scheme.