CBI finds no evidence against Birla, Parakh

A CBI case against business tycoon Kumaramangalam Birla and former IAS officer P C Parakh in the coal block allocation scam appears headed for a quiet burial.

The agency has failed to find any evidence against the two during the probe in the last ten months.

The investigators will formally close the case next week, as there is no evidence of wrongdoing against Birla, Parakh or any other person in the allocation of two coal blocks at Talabira in Odisha on November 10, 2005, to Aditya Birla group company Hindalco, sources said.

The CBI registered the case on October 15 last year, alleging that Birla and others entered into a “criminal conspiracy with one another and public servants by abusing their positions and showed undue favour to an Odisha-based industry in the allocation of Talabira II and Talabira III coal blocks along with a public sector undertaking of Tamil Nadu.”