Coalgate: FIR against two more pvt companies

The CBI has registered two fresh cases against two private companies for misrepresenting facts to get coal blocks, taking the total number of cases in the coalgate scam to seven.

Interestingly, the two companies in the loop – Grace Industries Ltd and Vikash Metals and Powers Limited – are not mentioned in the CAG performance audit report. The audit authority had listed 57 private companies for making windfall gain owing to opaque coal block allocation policy that led to a national loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore.

In an official statement issued on Saturday, the CBI said it had received complaints against the two firms from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).  “A preliminary enquiry to examine the irregularities, if any, in the allocation of coal blocks by Ministry of Coal during the period of 2006-09 was registered on a reference from CVC in June this year,” the CBI said.

The CBI on Saturday carried out simultaneous searches at seven cities, including Nagpur and Chanderpur in Maharashtra, Kolkata, Asansole and Purulia in West Bengal and Ghaziabad (UP) – to get hold of crucial information from the official and residential premises of the accused officials of the two firms.

The sleuths have booked Kolkata-based Vikash Metal & Power Ltd and its six directors: Vimal Patni, Vikash Patni, Anand Patni, Virender Kumar Jain, Kailash Chander Jain and Vijay Kumar Jain. Anand Mallick, the authorised signatory for the company, has also been named in the FIR.

In the second FIR, Nagpur-based Grace Industries Ltd and its directors – Mukesh Gupta and Seema Gupta – along with unknown public servants, figure as accused.

“The cases have been registered to look into the allegations related to allocation of coal blocks on the basis of misrepresentations and false claims in the applications and in the presentations made by the companies,” the CBI said in the release.

Without naming the company, the agency charged that “promoters of one company are alleged to have sold their stakes after allocation of coal block”,  an allegation similar to the charges against alleged perpetrators involved in the 2G scam.

Earlier, the CBI had registered five cases against AMR Iron & Steel Private Ltd, JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd, Navbharat Power Private Limited, Vini Iron & Steel Udyog Ltd and JAS Infrastructure Capital Private Ltd.