In view of a CBI Special Court summoning former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in allocation of Talabira-II coal lock to Aditya Birla company Hindalco, Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan on Tuesday demanded interrogation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik by the CBI too since he had recommended to the Centre for the favour to Hindalco.
“It is unfortunate that the CBI is not yet to summon the Odisha Chief Minister for interrogation. Based on the recommendation of Patnaik, the Centre had decided to allot the Talabira-II coal block to the Hindalco Industries.
As far as the former the Prime Minister is concerned, he had already clarified that he had taken steps to allot the coal block to Hindalco based on the recommendation of the State Chief Minister. Consequently, Chief
Minister Patnaik should be summoned,” said Harichandan. The BJD party received Rs 6.70 crore in three installments from the Aditya Birla Trust for the deal and hence, Patnaik’s role should be brought under the probe agency’s scanner, asserted Harichandan.
On the chit fund scam, Harichandan said the search operations conducted by the CBI at houses of several BJD leaders have exposed the link between the ruling party leaders and the people involved in the fraud in multi-crore Ponzi scheme.
However, Chief Minister Patnaik succeeded to evade investigation after a close-door meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Delhi, alleged the PCC chief.