The CBI on Tuesday summoned former Coal Secretary PC Parakh for questioning on Friday in connection with the coal scam case relating to grant of an Odisha-based coal block nine years back to the Adtiya Birla Group company Hindalco in alleged violation of the existing rules.
Parakh, however, sought a fresh date after May 1 as he would not be able to make himself available for questioning before that due to family commitments.
Parakh, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Hindalco have been named as accused in the case registered by the CBI last year. The accused persons, including Parakh have been booked for abuse of official position, criminal conspiracy and cheating. Unknown officials of the Coal Ministry and Hindalco have also been booked in the case.
During the questioning, Parakh is likely to be grilled on what led him to twist the decision of the Screening Committee that had awarded the coal block to Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) Neyveli lignite Corporation and ‘favour’ Hindalco, official sources said.
The Screening Committee had allocated the Talabira-II coal block to the PSU but the decision was reversed by Parakh after the Prime Minister’s Office forwarded him a request of the Birla Group chairman and asked him for reconsideration of the decision.
In its FIR, the agency alleged that during 2005, these accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy and the then public servant (Parakh) abused his official position and showed undue favour to the Odisha-based industry (Hindalco) in allocation of Talabira II coal block along with the PSU.
According to the FIR, the Talabira II coal block was earmarked for the PSU but Parakh allegedly favoured Hindalco and allowed the Birla Group company to share the block with Neyveli leading to notional loss to the exchequer.
Parakh has been critical of the CBI action against him and has also come out with a book recently. He has denied any quid pro quo as alleged by the CBI in its FIR about his meetings with Birla before reversing the Screening Committee decision on allocation of the block to Hindalco.