Coal scam: PC Parakh joins CBI probe

"I will cooperate fully with the CBI officers. I will answer all their questions. But I cannot say anything more on this right now," Parakh said as he entered the CBI headquarters in Delhi.

On Apr 22, the CBI had summoned Parakh in connection with the scam.

The agency directed Parakh to join the investigation into coal block allocation to Hindalco within the same week. 

In October 2013, the CBI had filed its status report into the case that contained the details of latest FIRs filed against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, Parakh and the "competent authority" named by the CBI in its investigation.

Parakh along with Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla were named by the CBI in its fourteenth First Information Report (FIR) in connection with the coal scam.

"The PM cleared the decision... he is the final decision-maker," Parakh had said.

Explaining his actions, Parakh said, "Mr Birla told the PM that we are the first applicant and are equally eligible and competent and our request has been unfairly rejected. He also met me and made a similar representation. I found there was merit because they (Hindalco) were the first applicant."

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) issued a statement on the allocation of coal block to Hindalco of the Aditya Birla Group, defending the decision as one based on merits even as the coal block allocation scam taint landed at the doorstep of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Birlas after the CBI filed an FIR against Kumar Mangalam Birla.

An industry leader in aluminium and copper, Hindalco Industries Limited, the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group is the world's largest aluminium rolling company and one of the biggest producers of primary aluminium in Asia.

"The Prime Minister is satisfied that the final decision taken in this regard was entirely appropriate and is based on the merits of the case placed before him," said the PMO statement.

The coal scam had sprung into headlines after the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report on coal block allocation estimated a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the national exchequer owing to irregular allocations.

The CAG named 25 private companies as beneficiaries of coal block allocations in various states. They included companies like Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Power, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.