NEW DELHI:On Tuesday CBI registered a case against businessman Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary P C Parekh on charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption in reference to alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks eight years ago.
After registering the fresh FIR, its 14th within the multi-crore scandal, coordinated searches were meted out by CBI groups at nearly six locations in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bhubaneshwar.
The head of the Aditya Birla group are going to be called sure questioning, CBI sources said.
The agency has set-aside Birla as a representative of Aditya Birla cluster and his cluster company, metal maker Hindalco, for alleged corruption within the allocation of Talabira 2 coal blocks in Odisha that was assigned thereto on November 10, 2005, the sources said.
CBI loged a new case in alleged irregularities in coal scam against the then Coal Secretary, M/s Hindalco, representative of Adita Birla group, unknown persons and officers,” agency spokesperson Kanchan Prasad said.
The $40 billion (about Rs. 2.45 lakh crore) conglomerate has denied receiving any FIR and refuted allegations of any wrongdoing.
The CBI action had a right away fallout with Hindalco shares dropping within the morning by 1.27 %. a number of the opposite Birla firms were conjointly affected.
The coal secretary, Parekh at the time of this allocation, faces charges beneath the interference of Corruption Act as also criminal conspiracy and different offences.
CBI has been at the receiving finish within the Supreme Court that has passed powerful queries on why coal fields were allotted to non-public players while not a clear bidding method, the slow pace of probe as conjointly on missing files.