CBI ‘hurry’ to close Birla coal case flayed

IANS/New Delhi

A special court yesterday pulled up the CBI over the missing file containing original minutes of the screening committee meetings’ dealing with the Kumarmangalam Birla-promoted Hindalco’s application for allocation of coal blocks in Odisha.

Special judge Bharat Parashar also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) what was the need to hurry in filing the closure report in the coal block allocation case against Birla and others after the agency in its closure report observed that a few files were missing.

“Where are the original minutes of screening committee meetings in which the Hindalco group application was dealt with for allocation of coal block? Where are its original documents?” the court asked the CBI.

As the investigating officer of the case exhibited photocopies of the documents related to the application form, the court asked whether they had been authenticated by the coal ministry officials.

The officer said the documents were seized in the presence of bank officials.

Rejecting the CBI’s contention, the court asked what provisions of law prevented it from getting the documents authenticated from ministry officials. “Can a bank official authenticate the documents of the ministry?” it asked.

The officer then told the court that the original documents were missing.

The court warned it would initiate a preliminary inquiry over the lost case files.

The court sought to know on what basis had the CBI drawn the conclusion to close the case and what kind of investigation it had conducted.

The court set the next date of hearing in the case for September 22.

Earlier during proceedings, the court asked the CBI to clarify whether an element of criminality was involved while allocating Hindalco the coal blocks.