35 Cases Filed against Companies in Coal Scam : CBI tells SC

The CBI had informed the Supreme Court that so far it had filed 35 cases against the coal companies and investigation was continuing  in respect of over 100 companies in the coal scam.

The bench consists of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri for monitoring the probe in the coal scam cases. Senior Counsel Amarendra Saran, appearing for the CBI, made this submission before the bench. The court took on record the submissions and directed the CBI to complete the entire probe by March 31.

Counsel for Common Cause Prashant Bhushan raised the issue in the court regarding the August 2014 judgment cancelling the coal block allocations.  He said the court had disapproved the diversion of coal by Reliance Energy from Sarsen coalfields, meant for ultra-mega power projects, for other purposes. Further he alleged that the company officials had visited over 60 times to former CBI director Ranjit Sinha’s residence and pleaded for a CBI probe into this aspect as nothing had happened so far on diversion of coal. Along with this Mr. Bhushan also submitted that there are several public sectors firms that had coal blocks and they had handed over the coal blocks to private entities in the name of joint ventures.

The bench told the counsel that, “ the court will look into these allegations on the next date of hearing and in the meanwhile asked the CBI to take instructions whether the probe being conducted covered these aspects also”.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on April 27.