JOIN USAfter a controversy over “missing” files, the CBI has now pruned the list of files and documents it wants from the Coal Ministry in connection with the coal-block-allocation scam, after finding that some of the records sought by the agency were already available with it in a different set of files.
The CBI had earlier given a list of 225 files and documents, asking the Coal Ministry to provide them. The inability of the ministry to provide the documents created a furore inside and outside Parliament, and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to give a statement in Parliament regarding this. Of the 225 files and documents, 167 pertain to the pre-2006 period.
The CBI has registered 13 cases related to coal-block allocations during the 2006-09 period for alleged misrepresentation of facts by the beneficiaries. Sources said that the CBI has now prepared a fresh list with a pruned-down number of files related to coal-block allocations, which are still awaited by it for its probe into the scam.
The agency has already handed over the new list to Attorney General G E Vahanvati.
The number of files was reduced after it was found that some of the records sought by the agency were available in a different set of files.