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A court asked for further investigation into an illegal coalfield allocation case involving Hindalco Industries yesterday, while hearing an earlier report from the Central Bureau of Investigation that said the probe was likely to be closed.
Hindalco shares fell as much as 7.4% after the court order and closed down 5.5% at Rs144.75 in a Mumbai market that was down 1.97%.
The CBI said in August it was likely to close the case against Hindalco’s billionaire chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and former bureaucrat P C Parakh in relation to a coal block allocated to the firm in 2005.
“As the matter is between the CBI and the Court, and also subjudice, it is inappropriate for us to comment,” Hindalco said in a statement.
The court has also asked for a statement from former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who was responsible for the coal portfolio in 2005.
Singh’s Congress Party suffered its worst defeat in polls that were concluded in May this year.
Special CBI judge Bharat Parashar has asked for statements of the then coal minister and other officials to be recorded, a lawyer involved in the case said. The lawyer requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
A CBI spokeswoman said the agency was yet to receive the court order and that the CBI would comply with it.
An aide to Singh said: “There is nothing new in this. We have nothing to say. We have yet to receive the order.”
The court observed that a concerted effort was being made to manipulate the entire government machinery to protect the interest of Hindalco and refused to accept a closure report.
“...the entire proceedings which took place in the ministry of coal or the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with regard to allocation of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco, I am of the considered opinion that before the matter is examined further as to what offence, if any, stands committed, it will be appropriate that the then minister of coal be first examined,” the judge said.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party attacked the Congress following the court order while the Congress said that Singh had made his position clear on the issue and had offered further assistance if needed.
The CBI has been investigating whether there were irregularities in allocating a coalfield to Hindalco and two other companies in a scandal dubbed as “coalgate.”
The scam surfaced after a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2012 questioned the government’s practice of awarding coal mining concessions to companies without competitive bidding.
The Supreme Court in September scrapped all but four of 218 coal blocks allocated by the government over the past two decades.
“Whatever the trial court has directed will have to be first considered and evaluated and seen in the context of the Supreme Court order before a formal reaction can be articulated,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said.
BJP leader Sambit Patra said his party had consistently raised the coal allocation controversy and maintained that the buck stops with the then prime minister.
“The Congress is totally exposed today. Manmohan Singh was a shadow prime minister. Will his statement expose the real culprits,” he asked.
But Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha said it was Singh who recommended auctions for coal block allocations to make the process more transparent, and had made a very categorical statement that the recommendation followed the backing of the Odisha government.
He said Singh had also said that no arbitrary decision was taken and “were CBI to ask for further information, he would have no objection.”
