Govt rejects CBI plea to quiz former Secretary in Coal scam

Government has turned down a request of CBI to question former Coal Ministry secretary H C Gupta, at present a member of Competition Commission of India, in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam.

Highly-placed sources in CBI said the request was turned down by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs last week despite the agency reasoning out that his questioning was important as he was the Secretary between 2006 to 2009, a period which has come under the scanner.

The sources said CBI would be telling the court about the decision of the government for not allowing Gupta, a 1971 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, to be questioned and take necessary directions.

Efforts to contact Gupta did not fructify and messages sent on his mobile remained unanswered.

CBI, which is probing the coal block allocation scam, has registered 11 FIRs related to alleged irregularities in the allotment coal blocks between 2006 and 2009.
During this period, 68 coal blocks were alloted to 151 companies and files of some of them had gone missing.

CBI has questioned former Union Ministers Santosh Bagrodia and D Narayan Rao and Congress MP in Rajya sabha MP Vijay Darda so far.