The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the CBI over its inaction to probe contents of a diary recovered from the office of Hindalco during the coal scam probe. Although the diary allegedly contains details of payoffs, hawala transactions and money laundering by the
company, the CBI did not probe further as it was not related to the coal scam probe.
The Bench of Justices Madan B lokur, Kurian Joseph and AK Sikri told the CBI that even if the diary had nothing to do with the ongoing coal scam probe, it was the duty of the investigating agency to examine whether the contents as such disclosed any offence. This was even urged by the NGO Common Cause, which brought the focus on the diary suggesting that the bribes were paid to secure important deals and permissions from the Government.
Senior advocate Amarendra Saran, who appeared for the CBI, informed the court that the matter was being looked into by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for possible money laundering. He handed over a sealed cover report giving latest status report of ED probe. The report suggested that further investigation was still on.
Recently on September 4, the ED wrote to the CBI raising certain queries which were replied back by the agency. The Bench posted the matter for September 21 awaiting the next status report by the ED.
The Bench said, “We will proceed on the basis that the diary has no nexus with coal scam, but it is for you (CBI) to determine any criminality or whether prima facie a case is made out.” It was clear that the Bench did not want to link it with the pending coal scam monitoring but wished to independently know whether the details of the diary was evidence of any crime.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan who appeared for the NGO claimed that ED investigation cannot proceed unless a case under Prevention of Corruption Act is first registered. Incidentally, his application suggests that the dates mentioned in the diary coincide with the period when several coal mining projects of the Birla Group got clearance from the Environment Ministry. He alleged that at present, the diary is under the lens of the Income Tax department which is not sufficient.
The diary seized on October 15, 2013 showed payments made during the period January 9, 2012 to February 2, 2012. The application said, “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.