Why the hurry to close Birla case: Court to CBI

The court had earlier asked the CBI to clarify whether "rule of law" was followed in allocation of coal blocks to Birla's Hindalco

It seems controversies surrounding the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) refuse to die. Already cornered over CBI Director Ranjit Sinha’s alleged meetings with business representatives linked to cases being investigated, at his residence during the past 15 months, the agency was on Friday pulled up by a special trial court for seeming to hurry in closing a case against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and some others in the allocation of coal blocks.

While Sinha filed his reply before the apex court in a sealed envelope, explaining his meetings with the accused in the 2G telecom spectrum and coal block cases, special CBI judge Bharat Parashar came down heavily on CBI for filing a closure report in the Birla case. “What was the hurry to close this case?” he asked.

The CBI’s investigating officer told the court the original minutes of the screening committee’s meeting at which the Birla-owned Hindalco was awarded coal blocks were missing. “There is no such statement of anyone that the original minutes are missing,” the judge said. When the investigating officer failed to give a satisfactory reply, the judge asked, “On what basis have you drawn such a conclusion (to close the case)? What kind of investigation have you done? What was the supervisory officer doing? Bring the police file and call your supervisory officer in the court now.”

The CBI had filed a closure report in the case on August 28, stating it hadn’t found any evidence of wrongdoing against Birla and former coal secretary P C Parakh. A case was registered against them in October 2013; this pertained to allocation of the Talabira II and III coal blocks in 2005.

In its first information report, the CBI had alleged Parakh had, within months, reversed his decision of not allocating coal blocks to Hindalco “without any valid basis or change in circumstances” and showed “undue favours”. The court also expressed displeasure over dumping “illegible” documents before it, saying some of the papers filed along with the “final reports were blank”.

This isn’t the first time the court has came down hard on the investigating agency. During a hearing earlier this month, it had asked the CBI to explain whether “rule of law” was followed in Birla’s case and whether there was an act of omission or commission in it. The court had also asked the agency to explain whether the case involved any element of criminality.

A few days earlier, the court had returned a charge sheet in a different case related to coal block allocations after the agency failed to give reasons behind dropping the names of the four accused.

The case related to Kolkata-based Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd.

In October last year, the CBI had said it had enough evidence to support its case against Birla and Parakh in the matter related to coal block allocations, adding it would present all the details the Supreme Court, which was monitoring the case.

“Whatever you want to tell us, tell us in black and white,” the court had told Sinha’s counsel on September 8.

The next hearing on the case is due on Tuesday.

The court’s direction follows a plea by activist Prashant Bhushan, who has alleged Sinha was favouring Reliance Telecom in the 2G telecom spectrum case.

Both the 2G spectrum case and the one related to coal blocks are under various stages of trial and investigation. The Comptroller General of India had pegged notional losses in 2G spectrum and coal block cases at Rs 1.76 lakh crore and Rs 1.86 lakh crore, respectively.

THE STORY SO FAR

2012

• December 3: Ranjit Sinha takes charge as CBI director

2013

• October 16: CBI registers a case against industrialist K M Birla (pictured) and former coal secretary P C Parakh in a coal block allocation case

2014

• April 14: Parakh releases his book, Crusader or conspirator? Coalgate and other truths; says then PM Manmohan Singh could have averted the scam
  

 

August 28: CBI files a closure report in the case in which Birla and Parakh were named