Coal scam: Court to consider CBI's closure report on 20 Jan

New Delhi: A special court today said that it would consider the CBI’s closure report filed in a coal blocks allocation scam case in which the agency had earlier lodged an FIR against Prakash Industries Ltd and others on 20 January. Special CBI judge Bharat Parashar fixed the matter for consideration on 20 January after the probe agency filed the relevant documents pertaining to the case before the court.[caption id=“attachment_2003523” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Coal issue. Reuters[/caption] “We have filed a complete closure report in the matter. We are filing all the relevant documents in the court,” senior public prosecutor VK Sharma said. The court was hearing the matter in which CBI had earlier lodged an FIR against Prakash Industries Ltd (PIL) and various others in connection with alleged irregularities in allocation of Chhattisgarh’s Fatehpur coal block. According to CBI, the Fatehpur coal block was allocated jointly to PIL and one other company by the 35th screening committee. The FIR in the case was registered against PIL, its three top officials, some officials of Ministry of Coal and others alleging that the firm had misrepresented its net worth while applying for the Fatehpur coal block. CBI, however, filed a closure report in the case, saying no prosecutable evidence could be found during the investigation conducted in the matter. The FIR was registered in the case under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The agency had alleged that the company had misrepresented fact regarding its net worth while the screening committee deliberately did not follow the guidelines and showed undue favour to the firm. PTI