Jindal named in Coalgate FIR, Cong in trouble
With the Central Bureau of Investigation registering a fresh case in the Coalgate scam on Tuesday against former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao and Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal for alleged cheating, corruption and criminal misconduct, the Congress seems in trouble again.
The agency named the former minister, Congress MP and four Delhi-based private firms as accused in an FIR registered over its probe into alleged irregularities in the allocation of the Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.
The firms booked by the CBI are Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, Gagan Sponge Iron Ltd, Jindal Realty, ND Exim and Mr Rao’s company Saubhagya Media.
The CBI also booked unidentified members of the screening committee that cleared the allocation of Amarkonda captive block, sources said.
Mr Rao, a former Rajya Sabha MP, was minister of state for coal in 2004-06 and between 2006 and 2008. A total of 154 coal blocks were allocated during his tenure.
He has already been questioned by the agency in the probe into the Coalgate scam.
It is for the first time that the then minister of state has been named as an accused in an FIR by the CBI, which alleged he got `2.25 crores camoflaguged as an investment from one of Mr Jindal’s firms within a year of allocating him a coal block.
Immediately after registering its 12th FIR in the Coalgate probe, CBI sleuths conducted searches at 19 locations, including Mr Jindal’s residence and offices in New Delhi and Mr Rao’s premises in Hyderabad.
CBI officials conducted searches at Mr Jindal’s 6 Prithviraj Road house and his firms’ offices at Bikhaji Cama Place.
Sources said Mr Jindal was not present at his residence at the time, so the sleuths sealed some cupboards and rooms, which will be opened in his presence once he returns. “CBI officials recovered several incriminating documents during the searches. These documents will now be scrutinised. The agency will soon call Rao and Jindal for questioning,” a source said.
Sources said Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and Gagan Sponge Iron Ltd, also run by Mr Jindal, had allegedly bagged the Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand in 2008 by alleged misrepresentation of facts when Mr Rao was MoS coal.
The FIR alleged that the misrepresentation was done on three counts — land, water supply and previous allocations.
Post new comment