The Central Bureau of Investigation, examining the Birla diary seized during the coal scam investigation, informed the Supreme Court on Monday that the alleged payoff made for grant of environmental clearance to a Birla concern was a fit case for probe.
Submitting a sealed cover report in Court with a note explaining the recommendation of the agency, CBI special senior counsel Amarendra Saran said, “Some part of the diary does reveal material that needs to be investigated.” He referred to one transaction in the diary on which the agency may file a preliminary enquiry (PE). According to sources in CBI, this case related to grant of environmental clearance to a Birla concern by a former Environment Minister in the UPA Government. The report was filed in a sealed cover on an application of advocate Prashant Bhushan demanding probe into the diary contents.
The Court will consider the report again on October 12 to decide whether a copy of the CBI report can be shared with Bhushan. The NGO’s application alleged that among the various things seized by the CBI during a raid on Birla’s corporate office in Delhi on October 15, 2013, was a diary that revealed payment of `7.08 crore under the heading “Project J — Environment & Forest” along with unaccounted cash of `25 crore and some incriminating documents.
The payment was made during the period January 9, 2012 to February 2, 2012. The application went on to state, “During Jayanthi Natarajan’s tenure as Minister, Environment and Forests, as many as 13 projects of the Aditya Birla Group companies were cleared between November 8, 2011 and June 17, 2013.” It was during this period that Hindalco got clearance from the said Ministry to double its extraction of coal from the Talabira coal blocks, which is under CBI investigation.