Coalgate: CBI raids companies with Congress, BJP links

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Sep 4, 2012: Three days before the end of the monsoon session of Parliament, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered cases against five private firms. These companies are Vinni Iron and Steel, Nav Bharat Steel, JLD Yavatmal, JAS infrastructure and power and AMR Iron and Steel. The CBI is also carrying out nationwide raids. CBI raids were on at 30 locations in ten cities including Kolkata, Patna, Hyderabad, Dhanbad, Nagpur, and Mumbai.

Vinni Iron and Steel is owned by former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, Nav Bharat Steel promoter VK Singh’s wife Nina Singh contested from Chhattisgarh on a BJP ticket. Congress MP Vijay Darda has links with JLD Yavatmal and JAS infrastructure.

Cases of cheating and criminal conspiracy have been registered against these companies, their owners and unknown officials of the Coal Ministry and state governments.

The Nav Bharat Coal Fields Ltd in Chhattisgarh was allotted Madanpur north block for a sponge iron plant. But, it allegedly did not disclose that it did not have a sponge iron plant in the state. The company sold 74 per cent stake to Nagpur based Solar Explosives Ltd.

The CBI has alleged that Vinni Iron and Steel got two mines using the link.

JLD Yavatmal in Chhattisgarh was allotted Fatehpur east coal block. Only 36 of 69 applicants for coal blocks were called by the screening committee. A showcause notice was issued in 2009 for not developing the block.

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.

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.

The agency has already questioned senior bureaucrats who were overseeing allocation of coal blocks during 2005-09, the sources said.

They said the questioning of the Coal Secretaries, who also chair the screening committee, was done to understand the issues involved in the allocation of coal blocks during the period and so far the agency has not found any irregularities on their part.

Courtesy: CNN IBN