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CBI seeks files and correspondence from PMO on coal block allocation to Hindalco

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) all files and correspondence on the controversial coal block allocation to Aditya Birla Group company Hindalco, ratcheting up the pressure just days after the government launched an elaborate defence of its decision.
 
A senior CBI official told ET the agency wrote to PMO on Tuesday asking for all files on the HindalcoBSE 0.47 % decision that are in PMO's possession, complete with file notings and correspondence between PMO and coal ministry.
 
The investigating agency, which last week filed a first information report (FIR) naming industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary PC Parakh and other unnamed officials in the case, has also sought all letters written by the Hindalco chairman and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting for an earlier decision to be reversed in the company's favour.
 
“Since PMO has put out a detailed explanation, CBI wants all the documents and files mentioned in the said explanation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his capacity as then coal minister and PM, is the ‘competent authority’ referred to in the FIR lodged on October 15, as the competent authority is always an individual and not the ministry or department like PMO.
 
Even the PMO explanation makes it clear who the competent authority is,” a CBI official said. The government has strongly defended its decision to award the coal block in Odisha, originally allotted to staterun firms in 2005, also to Hindalco and said it was taken in public interest. But CBI, which has already indicated to ET that it would record PM’s statement in the matter, is still not fully convinced. “Who determines what is in public interest?

Source: The economic Times