Coalgate: Is the FIR against Birla, ex-coal secy unfounded?

The 14th FIR filed by the CBI in connection with the coal block allocation scandal has raised a political storm. The opposition and the former coal secretary implicated in the case have insisted that the Prime Minister should be implicated in the case given he had a higher responsibility in the matter.

Some, like senior lawyer KTS Tulsi, believe that the FIR against Aditya Birla group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla, and the former coal secretary, PC Parakh, is ill founded.

“It does not contain a single offence in the Prevention of Corruption Act. There is only a vague allegation of conspiracy,” he said during a panel discussion on the show ‘The Buck Stops Here’ on NDTV.

However, according to senior lawyer and AAP member, Prashant Bhushan, corruption can’t be defined purely as an illegal financial transaction.

“You can commit an offence even though there will be no money involved. Even if you give largesse to private companies without public good (which many believe is the case with Birla) that constitutes corruption. You can’t give public resources arbitrarily. This is a clear misunderstanding of the law,” he said,

Former coal secretary Parakh, who was also present on the show, reiterated that the Prime Minister should ideally also be named as a conspirator in the FIR that has listed him as an accused.

“No corruption was involved in the case of allocating blocks to Hindalco and Neyvelli Lignite Corporation as it was based on my own recommendation. But if the CBI feels that every body is a conspirator, how can the PM be left behind?” he said on the show.

The former bureaucrat said that he was in agreement with the CAG’s recommendation that competitive bids should have been called for and an auction held to allocate the coal blocks. “This process was capable of being misused. But to say that in every case it has been misused is not correct,” he said.