Bureaucrats hired by companies which they helped get coal fields allotted to?

New Delhi: The investigation into the coal scam has the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) looking at whether bureaucrats colluded with private companies to get coal blocks despite being ineligible.

What is clear already is that several senior bureaucrats who could have helped inference the allocation process were employed by private companies after leaving the government.

R V Shahi was India's longest serving power secretary - he held the position between 2002 and 2007. During this time, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, owned by Congress MP Navin Jindal, was allocated two coal blocks in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Mr Shahi is now an Independent Director of the same company, whose businesses include steel, power and mining.


Like other companies, Jindal Steel and Power was chosen by a screening committee that included representatives of different ministries and stakeholders.  Mr Shahi says that the coal blocks given to Mr Jindal's firm were for sponge iron plants and not for power, therefore, he says, officials from his ministry would not have played a role in the selection process.

But during Mr Shahi's tenure as power secretary, two other Jindal Group companies - the Utkal A coal block in Odisha given jointly to both companies - were assigned coal blocks for power plants These companies are headed by Navin Jindal's brothers and he is a director of Jindal Stainless.

Like Jindal Steel and Power, a part of these firms are subsidiaries of the OP Jindal Group. Both Shahi and Navin Jindal dismissed any allegations of wrongdoing or favouritism.

In Jharkhand, PP Sharma was the Chief Secretary between December 2004 and January 2006, and then again from August 2007 to March 2008. Now, he is a full-time director with the Abhijeet Group, which has power and mining projects spread across Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal.

During Mr Sharma's tenure as Chief Secretary, the same Abhijeet Group got five coal blocks in Jharkhand. Though the allocations are done by the Coal Ministry, the state government's views are critical in the selection process and senior officials from the state where the coal filed is located are on the screening committee that decides on applications.

Mr NC Jha is the CEO of the mining business of Monnet Energy and Ispat Limited' the second largest coal-based sponge-iron manufacturer in India.

Mr Jha was the Technical Director of government-owned Coal India from 2007 till January 2012 and Chairman of Coal India Limited in 2011.   The Technical Director of Coal India is a member of the Screening Committee.

Between 2008 and 2010, the group was allocated three coal blocks in states including Odisha and Chhattisgarh for power and sponge iron by the coal ministry.

Coal scam: Haven't been asked to quit, says Maharashtra minister Rajendra Darda

Mumbai: A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked Congress MP Vijay Darda and his brother Rajendra, who is Maharashtra's Education Minister, in the coal block allocation scam, NDTV has learnt that the minister may be asked to quit. Top Congress sources have told NDTV that the party's leadership was unhappy that the Dardas hid facts.

But Mr Darda denied reports that he had been asked to go. "Nobody has asked me to resign. I'm attending functions with the CM and the Governor of the state. I'm absolutely fine," he insisted.

Mr Darda and his brother, Vijay, have been named in cases registered by the CBI against five companies and their directors for deliberately misreporting financial and technical abilities in order to corner coal fields.

Mr Vijay Darda has denied that he used his position to influence the coal allocation process followed by the government. Vijay Darda is closely linked to two of the five private firms that were raided by the CBI on Tuesday in connection with the coal blocks they landed in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Speaking to NDTV after these raids, Mr Darda said, "I am very shocked to hear about the filing of the case but I deny all the allegations. There has been no wrongdoing on my part. I did not lobby for coal blocks." He also said that he is confident that the "truth will come out" and added that he will co-operate with investigators.

Mr Darda has outrightly rejected the allegations against him. But the cases against his brother and him are likely to unnerve his party, which has been trying to fend off accusations of a coal policy rooted in crony capitalism and graft. Alleged irregularities in how coal blocks were assigned to private and state-run firms have provoked a massive political crisis, and emboldened the opposition BJP to demand the Prime Minister's resignation. Till that happens, the party says, it will not allow Parliament to function.

The case against Mr Darda, his son and his brother is connected to a firm named JLD Yavatmal; they were directors when the company was given coal fields. Mr Darda, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of Lokmat, Maharashtra's best-selling vernacular daily, says that his association with the company, named after his father, ended in 2009.

The four other firms against who cases were filed yesterday are Jas Infrastructure, in which Mr Darda and his son hold seven per cent stake, AMR Iron and Steel, Vinni Iron and Steel and Navbharat Power.

Mr Darda set up Jas Infrastructure and JLD Yavatmal with influential businessman Manoj Jayaswal. The politician says that in 2009, he ended his association with the latter because it cancelled plans for a power plant in Yavatmal, the district that he belongs to.

On Monday night, Mr Darda told NDTV, "I was not in the driver's seat...my son was leading the show." He added that if a firm associated with his son was allocated coal fields, it was because the company "met the parameters."

Sources say it's unlikely that Mr Jayaswal's different companies were collectively given 20 coal blocks without the influence of his high-level connections. Mr Jayaswal's political clout is on display in photographs from his daughter's wedding which he celebrated in Delhi and Mumbai in 2009. Seen with the entrepreneur are current Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, as well as senior BJP leaders like LK Advani and Nitin Gadkari, who is from Nagpur, like Mr Jayaswal.

The Congress has already been heavily embarrassed by the revelation that union minister Subodh Kant Sahai in 2008 wrote to the Prime Minister's Office, lobbying for coal blocks for a company that has his brother as a Director.

Another company raided on Tuesday - Vinni Iron and Steel - is being investigated for links to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, who spent two years in prison on money-laundering charges. Vaibhav Tulsyan, who once owned the firm and was raided yesterday, claimed he had sold the company to a close aide of Mr Koda before the coal blocks were allocated. "Because of a Naxal problem, we were not able to run the company, so when Vijay Joshi, who was a close aide of former chief minister Madhu Koda, approached us with a good offer, we sold the company to him," he told the Press Trust of India.

The CBI's inquiry is rooted in a complaint filed by BJP leader Prakash Javadekar four months ago with the government's anti-graft department or Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Then, last month, the government auditor or CAG said that 142 coal fields allocated between 2004 and 2009 had allowed private firms to get windfall benefits of upto 1.86 lakh crores because the coal mines were sold at highly undervalued rates, instead of being auctioned. While the government has rejected that finding, the Opposition has seized it to insist that the Prime Minister must step down.

From: NDTV

Coalgate: CBI books 5 companies, one firm 'linked' to Congress MP Vijay Darda

NEW DELHI: After three months of internal probe, the CBI on Tuesday registered five cases in connection with the alleged scam in allocation of coal mines and conducted searches in nearly 30 places across the country.

After registering five FIRs in court, CBI teams fanned out to nearly 10 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Patna, Hyderabad, Dhanbad and Nagpur and searched premises of owners of some companies.

The companies named in the FIR by the CBI are Vini Iron and Steel, Nav Bharat Steel, JLD Yavatmal which is said to be linked to the family of Congress MP Vijay Darda, JAS infrastructure of Abhijeet Group and AMR Iron and Steel and their directors and unknown government officials, the CBI said.

The agency, which had registered a preliminary enquiry in June this year, has slapped charges of cheating and suppression of facts against the companies.

When contacted, Vaibhav Tulsyan, whose office and home were searched by the agency for his alleged association with Vini Iron and Steel, claimed he had sold the company to a close aide of the then Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda.

"I do not know why the searches are taking place at my office and home. I have sold the company five months before coal block allocations. I was not be the beneficiary allottee. My only fault was that I was the applicant for coal blocks.

"Because of Naxal problem we were not able to run the company, so when Vijay Joshi, who was close aide of former chief minister Madhu Koda, approached us with a good offer, we sold the company to him. At the time coal block allocation, the company was already with Joshi" Tulsyan said.

The company was allocated Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand. Tulsyan was one of the directors when the application was moved for coal block allocation and he was the signatory on the application.

The agency has also reached the office of JAS Infrastructure and Power Limited in Defence Colony here.

The attempts to contact the Abhijeet group spokesperson failed as his office said he was on leave. The office also refused to part with his contact number. The emails sent to him bounced back.

Congress MP Vijay Darda had refuted allegations that he was part of any scam.

He had stated that neither he was involved in any scam nor he had any partnership with Union coal minister Shri Prakash Jaiswal or Subodh Kant Sahai.

He said if any BJP leader proved that he had been allotted nine coal blocks and got benefit of Rs 25000 crore in nexus with Jaiswal, he was ready to relinquish politics else the person making allegations should leave politics.

The filing of FIRs comes three months after registration of a preliminary enquiry into the coal scam by the agency on the directions of the Central Vigilance Commission.

During the preliminary enquiry, the CBI was informed by the Coal ministry officials that it had issued show cause notices to some of the firms which were allocated the mines for explaining the delay in conducting the mining work.

Some of the firms, which were allocated coal blocks in 2005, were yet to start mining, official sources said.

The CBI had also examined the past areas of operation of some of the companies which were allotted coal blocks in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, the sources said alleging some of these firms had been set up only for getting coal blocks allocated and the same was later sublet to other companies at a premium.

CBI coal probe shows its impartiality: Jaiswal

CBI's registering cases against five companies in the coal block allocation scam leaves no room for further questioning on the impartiality of the investigative agency, coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said on Tuesday.

"Those who allege CBI works on government instructions, they should answer now, how they feel about the CBI action?" Jaiswal told reporters here, commenting on the development.

Jaiswal's comments come following CBI registered cases against five companies and unknown government officials as part of its probe into alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks.

"Please, ask those people who give CBI a bad name when it suits them," Jaiswal said.

Coal-Gate: CBI to probe sale of shares in firms which got coal licenses

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is all set to investigate sale of shares in companies which got coal licenses. 

Sources tell NDTV that money was made by shareholders selling stake after licenses were allotted. This was prompted by the fact that the value of companies with coal licenses showed an increase.

The CBI will also investigate links between shareholders in these companies and the members of the screening committee that allotted the coal blocks.

Sources say at least 12 companies are under the scanner and the agency plans to file six FIRs soon.

Sources say in order to qualify, some companies lied about their finances, while others did not reveal that they had already been assigned coal blocks. The CBI believes that these problematic allotments could not have been made without the collusion of government servants; some bureaucrats will also be charged.

NDTV has learnt that the questioning bureaucrats, including officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), is not ruled out.

The BJP has not allowed Parliament to function for eight  days now demanding that the Prime Minister Singh own moral responsibility for allowing what is alleged to be a huge swindle on his watch as coal minister.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report tabled in Parliament earlier this month, did not indict the Prime Minister, but said his government had missed opportunities to introduce an auction for coal blocks. The government has disputed the report and auditor's  estimate of losses - which are pegged at Rs. 1.86 lakh crore.

From:NDTV

Aarushi-Hemraj case: Court warns Talwars as witness wait

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge on Thursday issued a warning to Nupur and Rajesh Talwar after their lawyers failed to cross-examine forensic expert BK Mahapatra in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case trial in Ghaziabad.

As Mahapatra was kept waiting the whole day, Judge S Lal said a “delaying tactic was being adopted”.

Stating that the witness could not be left in the lurch, he said that a “last opportunity” would be given to the defence to cross-examine him on August 21. The order came after the Talwars’ lawyers requested the court to defer Mahapatra’s cross-examination.

They said the CBI should first produce 13 witnesses mentioned before the Supreme Court on August 13 during the hearing on Nupur Talwar’s bail application.

On August 13, the CBI had challenged Nupur Talwar’s bail application on the grounds that 13 material witnesses might be influenced if she was let off.

Adjourning the hearing till September 17, the apex court had asked the CBI to speed up the examination of the 13 witnesses.

Mahapatra’s examination started since July 31 and ended on August 14, after which the Talwars’ counsels were supposed to cross-examine him.

CBI special public prosecutor RK Saini said the defence was trying to “to delay the trial process.” “Once his cross-examination is complete, we will expedite the examination of 13 witnesses as mentioned before the SC. The accused are trying to make grounds for getting bail by making a false premise that we are not examining 13 witnesses,” Saini said.

Although three of Talwars’ lawyers were present at the Ghaziabad court, they refused to initiate the  cross-examination, saying they were not “acquainted with the said branch of science (forensics)”.

They said that only one of their lawyers, GP Thareja, would be able to cross-examine the witness but he was not available.